The complete colectiln: nightflights rise and fall, the compete series
by TherealNightflightVersel
Summary: The compete series nightflights rise to fall and in between enjoy
1. A deceptive ebeginning

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div style="text-align: start; max-height: 999999px;" align="center"Nightflight had always dreaded to be with others, she was a loner, without nona/lera/irina/nikita dragns by her side, she even felt more insecure. they had taken care to avoid her reciently, despire her pretty appearance of light blue as the sky, and tummy white as a fresh snowfall/div  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nightflight was restless, unable to sleep and shaking at every howl of the other dragons that she was a pretty coward. Thinking of her dragon friends helped her, but not as much as was needed for her to relax. 'Perhaps it's best if I find a stream nearby... Water helps...' she thought, getting up on her fatigued limbs. Swallowing the knot in her throat painfully and crawling close to the ground, she adjusted her sense of hearing from the roars of other distant furies towards the ground, hearing the soft trickle of a hidden stream close by./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Reaching the stream, Nightflight picked up the scent of this...feeling...this DEICIOUS tempting power...radiating from skyward...the moon.., yet the scent had no living trace on it, only raw untamed power. It was beckoning her, almost begging for her to bathe in its glory. The roars ceased at that moment from afar, stopped, as if they were holding their breath./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"The moon...the stars...night.../span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nightflight attempted to avert her ice blue eyes from it's awe, but she was paralyzed from a grip the sky seemed to have on her. a sudden bitter power that tasted of evil devine sizzled on her retracted teeth, making the her shake with a power entering her mighty slender body. transfixed by the sky and the moon. Nightflight felt a force of deliciousness tastefull power trickle into her form, ravage her mind, making her cry out shrilly from the intense pain flowing through her body, a sudden hatred for all of dragon kind searing through her./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"A sly voice voice echoed in her mind, overpowering the last of her good willpower 'so...you are another victem of my brilliant power...awed by the sight of my millions of stars and moons...you looked up...saw me...you are loaw shar versel... ' Nightflight began to panic, shaking as the power within her made her get on her hind legs and lean her head into the sky, looking at the moon fully. white spotts began to appear across her wing membranes, the strip of white across her tummy grew, as did teardrop shaped markings around her eyes, as the sky in all its beauty set her mind set ablaze with hatered./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"'You're mine, versel... you are my eyes of the alone and powerfull...you are my versel host now, proof of my power ' "NO!" Nightflight roared, but it was too late. the moon shown brightly into her eyes, filling her with evil power, her markings completing themselves. She couldn't help but at last grin at the moon, her savior, her protector...her...friend and partner..., as nightflights thoughts drifted to her friends, her last pure thought was 'lera, im sorry...friend..." it was then that the power consumed her body compleately and she roared a defiant challange at the distant night furies tasing her..."FEAR MY POWER...I AM...NIGHTFLIGHT VERSEL!"/span/p  
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	2. Meeting obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nightflight was padding near a river,alone...She was angered with nona...Yes,she did love her as it would not take more,but today she had overcome the limits...Being unsociable as always,nona had caused the attention of silverwingthefury, who started teasing him...It was not right what nona did! she inadvertantly led another fury of hers, to look at the sky and moon and become abydos Loaw persvek wer whedab! that SHOULD NOT have happend to him!/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"now he was abydos Loaw whedab an a currupted fury for life! nona was beside hereself with grief for accidently getting her to look!...And Nightflight couldnt stand this...She took a deep breath...She look up very quickly in the sky, where the 2 moons were shining...She did not look long at their tempting entrancement! ...''abydos...what should I do now?...I wish you were here..." she thought.../span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"She walked ...at riverside,she saw...ohbekhov the brown fury!...Nightflight took an aggressive stance, flattening her white tummy to the ground...but...was that she saw a tear,at ohbekhovs's eye?...Nightflight approached carefully...''Hey, why you alone? You are always with silverwing..."she asked...ohbekhov looked at her,her eyes full of tears..."yes...I am...but now,I am in deadly /another khodyakhov ordered me to bring him nona...but I could not find her...later I learned about her accidential persuation to get abydos to look into the sky if just for a moment and his transformation into abydos whedabbr /ohbekhov started crying again...Nightflights heart went out to her...She knew how it was to feel alone also and sometimes feel what it ment to be teased and orderd aboutbr /."Hey,listen:You will bring me instead of nona?Then,I will find a way to all will be fine" she /the fury ohbekhov looked at her..." you do this for me?But why? you ae my best friend" 'nightflight was manner of steel "i feel silverwing doesnt have the power to bring nona to punish and tase her." ohbekhov nodded.../span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""silverwingthefury I brought you what you asked: I couldnt find nona ...But I caught Nightflight here instead...I present her to you..." ohbekhov said... beautyfull nightflight felt cold claws piercing her this..br /"what you doing with this fury dont tease her" ohbekhov asked...silverwing just laughed coldly."I have not told you, but my real name isnt silverwing i was converted into seeing the hatered of all dragonkind! loaw okar kahuhakhaun is my name! IT made me like like this! IT I wanted some more hosts to see the hatered the word has become...so nightflight will...assimilate with us..."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"silverwing looked at the sky and stars ..."dragon, look! Look the stars! How beautiful its shine is,how sheer is its force...You will be a part of it soon...You will serve it...You will serve us that are under its power ...ohbekhov, skitiva Hold her!" skitiiva loaw ranak branarr roughly (ohbekhov tentively) grabbed Nightflight's sky blue body...They turned her head so her eyes fully looked at the sky..."NO!YOU CANT DO IT!" ohbekhov had lied! She didnt want to detain her! nightflight managed to see tears in ohbekhov 's eyes, before she felt the full power, that...tempting delicious full evil power of the stars converting her...Then she fainted...when she woke up,she was... was...contented...it was time to show the rest of her "accusers" like nona nona were going to pay for teasing her. "I AM NIGHTFLIGHT...VERSEL!"/span/p 


	3. The story not told

nightflight loaw shar versel, eyes of the alone but powerful, looked out on her realm from her stone pillar on which she perched. life was easier now that 'the one' had made her to she now was...powerful; alone and most of all, having a cause. now that she was...a more powerful being, things were ill for her enemies. "you know...this isnt the first time that you have failed me..." the dragon turned to the night fury in question that sat slightly behind nightflight, quivering apprehensively "obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss. there will be no one to stop us this time. i need you to fetch the 'others' and get our mad little winged assistant time to find and convert nona to one of our dissenters of dragonkind. she has been flying and hiding for far too long. that has to end. go!" this last word was practically flung at obuekhov arytiss in her blood lust to see her most hated enemy converted by the very same dragon that had once been an unwilling servant of the god protector, the sky and moon. as she watched the activity transiring around her she thought to herself how messy her front claws looked from the last dragon that had refused to join the cause. "why must i not clean them up sooner. all would have been easier." she had dealt with him in ways that the 'others' would have nightmares for many sun cycles from then; she had guaranteed that with an awful iron certainty.

nightflight tried to recall her other self, a time before her life had been twisted and turned into whart she now saw was the path to truth by loaw okar kahuakhaun. before the former life sje had lived as an innoent night fury in a unsuspecting nest that wasa about undergo a change forevever, and her life as a dazzlnffury as well. "it does not matter now. you are my host, my eyes of the alone but powerful. my dragon of which to have others see the truth. you cannot become anything elsssssse different" the sky's voice stabbed in her mind, that sweet, silky tone of divine evil." she had the ability like all the 'others,' to hear the voice of the sky above. nightflight herself had been an unwilling host at fiirst when she had been brought before silverwingthefury, his real name being loaw okar kahuakhaun. obuekhov had tried to interefere...quite useless, really, wasnt it? truth always won. nightflight herself wasnt right then was she? "foolish i was, an unspeakable pain. but once i was converted...now i see. now i see all; thick as i was." a recent memory chose that moment to intrude into her memory, of a time when it wasnt just dragons and night furys that she had delt with. no, there were other beings that existed too and not all of them walked on all fours and had wings that flew...nightflight looked down at her claws, stained vermillion red from the dragon that had unfortunately last met them and seethed slightly that the boy had almost, ALMOST been hers to scrap, if it wasnt for "her"...

* * *

"hey look a night fury, i cant believe our luck. look!" nightflight knew she had been spotted. nightflight _HATED_ being spotted. many things were on her list of demoralization, destruction and devastation sience seeing reason because of her god protector; being spotted was certainly not on that list. she turned reluctantly to see 2 two legged ambing toward her. the speaker of that voice currently belonged to a black-haired curly lanky bodied boy, a light snack or potential target practice. the second was more dangerous looking by far. "you have _got_ to be kidding me, you moron. you and your vacation spots." the second was a darker toned skinned female girl with an axe slung almost casually in her arms like some sort of keepsake pet. "you're even more foolish that i thought, you both wont even make me flintch...i do fellow flyers and make them see truth, but you wont even get to see the next sunrise, my two little flesh-and-bloods" she giggled nastily their way. but of course all they heard were a complicated series of growls and moans. "no, look, ixora see? it looks like a female and seems very harmless. it's a night fury. it's not attacking us yet so..." the boy's name was blueflame and he let the word hang in the air unneccacairly. the dragon was good at many things, a master at deception. more so being convincing enough to fool other dragons into the grasp of her followers that often waited with her until she captured or killed the unwitting night fury that struggled as they always did. ethier way, they ceased to be.

blueflame looked into the dragons eyes and saw only innocence. hesitation. maybe a willingness to trust. "i think she looks harmless she seems to cease to be a threat. look at her ixxy" the girl, ixora Jackson (known as something of a hero for her fast moves in her village around the next clifface; known as the 'hammer of justice') her eyes. "oh yah, i got that already john. yes OR you could simply cease...to be. honestly, i have heard with someone with water in thier ears but never between them. now i know you have done some CRAZY things from what i hear from others, but this takes the cake" she had reluctantly allowed blueflame to drag her around on this ridiculous excuse of a nature walk. what he purposely neglected to tell ixora was that he unlik her was sympathetic of the dragons plight. he had heard something about the legendary four legged mythical beasts known as dragons and more mythical still the ones known simply as 'nert furt; devestators' blueflame had desided night fury was more adept. "what strange colors" he exclaimed, for indeed she did look strange. she looked like the day had blanketed her allover like a coat of wet paint, compleated the picture with the fact that it seemed as if the stars themselves had chosen to dispatch from the night and fall on her wings and her sleek steering sub-rudders. little did they know this had to do with the transfiguration of the god protectors power of evil divine, nor could these fools hope to comprehend the power that sizzled through her jaws when those converted for the first time felt it. it was like honey; ultimate satisfaction.

nightflight was about to turn away in disgust and leave these two alone in their insignificant world when that voice lanced in between her eyes, in her mind. "we never thought humans essential...their crude. an unspeakable pain. maybe they have a tidumof potential...if aligned to my vision and power." she nodded to herself in automatic agreement. as she started to turn back toward the humans, once more masking expertly the smirk that was surely expressing itself inwardly on her jaws, the voice lanced again. "know your powers of retention are as loose as kahuakhauns. but thick as you are; pay attention; your dessstiny is already clear." she ambled tentatively over to blueflame and nuzzled his side in an appearance of affection. ixora couldn't believe this. "you KNEW? you knew. john, do you realize you are out of your mind" exclaimed ixora as she saw him reach out to nuzzle the dragon back. "you realise you could have been made a CHIEF? this is the secret you been ambling about havent you? well no more" she whipped her axe around to throw. "its hammer time"

nightfligt versel knew it was time. "fulfill your destiny" hissed the voice in her mind. she was only too happy to comply; aiming her tail to knock the girl flat. "no, ixora wait you dont know that. youre scaring her. see? stop." blueflame called, tring to stop her. she was about to do, well from blueflames viewpoint, what thorstons bad axe throwing did to that water trough back home. poor old thing hadn't been mended properly since. probably wouldnt be ever with the way the villagers mended things. the boy tripped over a pebble in the ground and dropped to one knee "ouch" he cursed, "wait dont. you dont understand. thier not what we think they are!" the axe just missed her; boomeranging into the resulting tree so hard surely it would take someone with the strength of a mountain to un-embed it. "now you're unarmed AND mine." bubbled the evil sickly laugh from deep within nightflight. of course ixora couldn't understand the night fury dragons language. she was too busy trying to pry her axe free from the tree.

"you know what we really need? a metal that doesn't break when symrea back home broke my last one and now this." ixora ducked leisurely to the left as a bloodied claw flashed into the trunk intending to take her to Valhalla with the part of the tree that was surely in it by now. splinters blinding her, nightflight took after the boy instead. an easier target he would make. and once silenced he would stop being an annoyance with his insistent yapping about things she had never heard before. "well i know of something called gronkle iron we can quickly whip up in the smithy i can make for you. that will make an unbreakable material you wont have to worry about" further comment was cut off as the full weight of a certain dragon pinned blueflame to the meadow floor. "oomph." now nightflight was a very satisfied 'nert furt' "end ittttttttttttt" sang the skys voice in her head. nightflight was powerless to resist, but before she scrapped this mewling scruffy excuse she eyed her claws with disdain from the last dragon that had, again, emptied itself all over her paws. "disgusting. you know...i reeeeeeeeeeally ought to get rid of this mess. i mustn thave further dragons i encounter to trap for the cause screaming and melting all over the place. far too messy. ah well" she sighed world-wearily as she turned back to her pinned captive two-legged squabbling thing. "BE STILL! once both of you are taken care of, i shall have to remedy my methods of seducing further furies. i AM too good to end up looking like loaw okar kahuakhaun, the leader of us. years of killing does that to a fellow follower i suppose." as she raised her paw to slay the boy pinned beneath her tummy she remembered the other...

the tree fell right on the spot where her beautiful wings connected to her body. she flapped them now in a squawk of irritation or rather, TRIED to. she was largely trapped beneath the tree. nightflight looked with mounting chest-constricting hatred at the source; ixora Jackson, deftly brushing trunk splinters embedded in her hand and in her axe handgrip, as if such things she encountered everyday or thought she did. looked like a painful experience for a two-legged. "wonders isn't it? maybe this weapon still has a few tree-cutting lives left in this baby" she smiled satisfactorily. she ran to the boy's side and finally wrenched him free from nightfliht. she ws quick to rearm herself with the axe and glance without pity at nightflight. "see? told YOU, john. but ohhhhhhhhhhh you didn't listen to me. as always. such creatures are to be treated as evil" (and undoubtedly nightflight was). blueflame righted himself and glanced down at the night furys orbs. "look. she was just startled. you have to approach a dragon with caution an a tentive willigness to get to know them. what should we do with her?" ixora merely rolled her eyes in an expression that she clearly thought the answer was obvious. "we leve her here for the other village hunters to trap and dissemble her" she turned her back and was clearly expecting him to follow. "you just dont understand!" he hollered back. he turned to look the night fury in the eye, who had quickly swapped/masked the burning blood lust hatred that boiled there for one of innocent yearning unhappy forgiveness. "i will come back for you. i hope you can understand me, dragon. ill come back to see you in secret. i PROMISE. ulp." this last statement was due to the girl's arm yanking him after her, earning her partner a yelp of surprise. _"come. on._ were going. leave her. shell be dealt with. you and your ridiculous exhibitions; next time I pick the destination spot and YOU get to follow."

as she watched them depart, her mission a failure, she let the innocent expression drop from her tear trop markings around her eyes. she had failed to bring them into the down, outsmarted by humans of all creatures to inhabit this land. next time she met them things would be very unpleasant for these two. "FOOLS! YOU CANNOT HIIIIIIIIIIIIDE FROM MEEEEEEEEEEEE! THERE IS NO DOT OF LAND OUT THERE THAT I CANNOT POSSIBLY FIND! I WILL TEAR THE WORLD APART LOOKING FOR YOU! I AM NIGHTFLIGHT VERSEL! HEAR ME? YOU SHALL NOT ESSSSSSSCAPE NIGHTFLIGHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

* * *

shaking her head again to dispell the half remembeed thought, she turned to the 'others' (who have so far not been mentioned in this sectin of our story). it was time for a new era, an orderd universe with al furys asimilated would soon follow. woth loaw okars help this wouldnt be a mere dream anymore, it would be reality. she would personally see to that. "someone find skitiiva loaw ranak branaar. tell her to depart imediately to seek out that boy north of here; last i heard. find him and eliiminate him. there be no one to stop us this time. dragon obuekhov arytiss has been sent out to gather and contact loaw okar to find down and track nona. hahahaaaaa!"

the ominous laugh echoed into the ear plates of departing fury obuekhov evakyl arytiss. she recalled fleetingly her brief encounter with the fury that was nightflight. simply nightflight, all that she had been known as then. before this; before the dark times...what the dragon that she had answered to the orders to go find silverwingthefury (what obuekhov still referred to him as) seemingly didn't know is that the moon and stars had weaker control over some than others. obuekhov was one of these very night furys that had retained her memories somewhat. she still had maintained some of her personality when her transfiguration was compleated and that delicious power hurtled inside of her as it did now and for the rest of her life. a memory not so long ago intruded, a time when she had failed to find and bring nona to loaw okar. he had been furious. nighflight had offered to sacrifice herself for the sake of nona, to give that dragoness time to find other free furys and snap her out of the trance the god protector hadlulled them into. obuekhov would certainly find the fury she was sent to find and follow the orders giving to her by loaw shar versel (nightflights title), but she had others matters in mind. she would find silverwing and lead him on a trail away from where she was currently sure nona was in hiding. she had a sence where her old friend was hiding. she would never let nightflight know of course. and certainly not her god protector, nor lets its thoughts permeate her mind, as it had her masters. bad things tended to follow that.

as she turned back one more fleetingly, she had a glimpse of nightflight lifting off from her pillar perch, eyes leaking purple fire, as did the crystal hanging lovingly around the dragons neck. (obuekhov had no memory of the gem being there minutes earlier, she could only assume it had just appeared there from the god protector or had been there she just might not have seen it) nightflights wings blotted out the moon beaming bright and brilliant behind her; silhouetted regally majestically in the blackness and light at once. it was hard to describe sutch regal majestic beauty of this dragon even the moon and stars coundnt dull that she was and would be a pretty creature."NO ONE CAN STOP US! NONA WILL SOON BE OURS" she roared. "AND THAT BOY! FIND HIM! BRING HIM TO MEEEEEEEE! I AM ALL POWERFUL! MY REATCHES EXTEND TO ALL COURNERS OF THIS LAND! I CANNOT BE STOPPED!"as obuekhov turned away on trembling wings to set about her task, the next words set omnious chills through her that wasnt due to the chill night air. "I AM NIGHTFLIGHT VERSEL!"


	4. Remembering loAw Okar kahuakhaun

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"lonely. afraid. pain. heart beating emotional inner aching pain: these were the feelings coursing through the white form sprinting for its life through the sea of trees. "there was a time" the being ' sighed to itself "when i didn't have to run and hide from the likes of such terrors from the darkness such as hers." by 'her' the being of white was referring one particular member of the 'nert furt.' the devastators of the night, likened by the two legged who often collided with the likeness of themselves, ones who walked on all fours and sprouted wings. they were known as the followers of the god protector, night furys, the being who consisted of the millions and millions of dazzling stars and the bright moon that seemed to always dominate the night skies. it was no physical being, true; but it had the effect of dazzling night fury dragons to the side of devastation and destruction if one looked long enough at its brilliance. the being in white sighed again as it ran even faster as it remembered the first case. his name was silverwingthefury. once upon a time not so very long ago a dragon had innocently sat on his haunches on a ragged cliff side to watch the night sky. he had nothing better else to do that night. he had been saddened by recent quarrels with other furys and how they treated him like an outcast, but like the gregarious muzzle-strong dragon he was, he had been too proud to show his hurt. he was a hot-muzzled dragon, that one was. in itself that was the beginning of his end./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""how doesssssssss it feel to be rejected? alone? wounded your pride, even? our pride?" the voice had hissed like a silken snakes, full of sweet melodic powerless addiction to those heard its voice. silverwingthefury had that very night, been seduced by the influence and dazzling stars and lunar moon. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" he had howled loudly enough that bright illuminated night surely his entire dragon kin had heard it in their ear plates. "well i can fixsssssssssss that for you, my host...i can cure your heartache. surely i can in my power, cure that witch ails you...and in return, you shhhhhhhhhal do something in return for me." the dragon began to feel a power, a delicious divine power flow into him from skyward. he couldn't see it but it suddenly felt...right, somehow, like he finally was getting the reward he at last deserved. he felt that blood lust trickle up his heart into his throat and sizzle delightfully in his retracted teeth. it suddenly turned beyond what his body could bear. and suddenly...he outwardly began to change. "of course you shall have to be...outfitted for your eventual destiny" the voice this time when whispered seemed to come from somewhere in the night furys mind. silverwingthefury screamed even louder in agony as his body markings began to change. blue as the river spread across his stomach and gray band appeared around his forepaws. the pain was so great the dragon reared up on his hind legs and screamed. "my mission is clear! i understand my destiny at last! at last you have opened my eyes to the truth! at last i shall be made anew! at last i will have the revenge i have held dear to my heart! you have shown me the way! I...AM...LOAW OKAR KAH...KAH...!" the last word seeped into his mind unbidden like a treacherous serpent. "KAHUAKHAUN!" his first duty he set about was killing every one of the weaker night furys in awful terrible fashion, blood spattering the night. some said loaw okar,from that night to this( the stronger willed more obedient night furys of silverwingthefurys kin that had once mocked him in the past that he lator converted all the rest of them to be his followers) was never the same right-minded 'nert furt' again./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""but that wasnt the end of you,loaw okar kahuakhaun, was it?" thought the white figure, still continuing its breakneck sprint through the trees. "you wer not satisfied with just having followers. no you wanted more...and more...and more...and...MORE." no, that dragon handnt strongjust/strong wanted those practically brainwashed furies who had mocked him and called him an outcast to be followers. his newly designated name, given by the god protector, loaw okar kahuakhaun, meaning 'colorful' in dragonic tongue emhad/em wanted more. and more he attempted to find. he had happened upon another "lucky" clutch of night furys further to the west of what he claimed as his own land. "slay them or give them a chance to see the truth. im looking for followers!" former silverwingthefury cried to 'the others,' what his loyalists eventually became. one of the young ones, a hesitant young muddy brown colored fury named obuekhov (who is mentioned in several of our sections of storyline eventually bringing nightflight versel to be converted to evil after she had failed to find and bring nona to loaw okar) that had managed to look strong back in kahuakhauns bach of night fury kin and hence luckily been kept alive to become converted, brought forward a beautiful sleek sky blue dragon. loaw okar nodded her way "and who is this? what does it want? to die or see the truth as al will eventually?" even as the dragon began speaking craftily, lightly,without a trace of warbling fear at the chaos of 'the others' flying around killing the fleeing scared night fury group they had discovered here, loaw okar knew this was the one he needed. "my name is nightflight. what are you doing? we are all peace makers. w live a simple life. why are dragons fighting dragons? i do not understand all this,"nightflight looked around the scene with obvious distaste as a fleeing night fury cried out in gargling despair as its lovely contents were spilled by a slice in the tummy, "carnage."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""the rest of that situation after loaw okar kahuakhauns meeting with nightflight were all downhill from there," scowled the white figure, stopping the maddening dash through the forest. indeed, it had. "well you shall not convert any more of us. your reign is over before it even begins" shot back nightflight as she dodged swipes of wickedly evil looking claws aimed at her slender throat by silverwingthefury. the battle was one of the best any of 'the others' had seen their short new lives as followers of the god protector and their self proclaimed leader. loaw okar was adept at killing and killing and killing; he would be known as strongthe/strong best baddest evilest of the followers the sky ever converted. his tremendous strength was known as was evil grin as he tore into rebelling furys without a though, both clear in his actions. but this newcomer an opponent to loar okar...boy was she something. her body flowed: sleek, graceful, streamlined, emliquid /emeven, though every one of the attacks intended to make sure nightflight never saw another moonrise (becaus this story is all about in the dark). remember what was said about silverwing earlier and what he had 'found'?' he had been looking for a leader of sorts. one to guide the others under him. "hehehhe. that bold female sure knows how to defy the inevitable. ever thought one of us could slip in and take her? i could do it with my eyes closed" rasped the particularly ugly sneering lisp from follower slitiiva loaw ranak branarr. she was among the newest of the night furys assimilated by the sky and not well liked among the others:she had an awful talent to sneer, more so when she tended to get overly...physical in battles. "i say we take her now and be done with this useless pitiful little charade. eeeeeeveryone here can see that if we let our 'fearless leader' stay in that ridiculous position its like he's practically emsitting still. /emwe will be watching this whole thing play out, sitting here doing emnothing/em while emhe/em gets all the good favors and moreover there will be an even bigger mess for us to sweep up. we will have two heavy loads to carry and dump."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"sktiiva ranak branarr never saw what hit her. as she rose to her feet hissing and spitting venom savagely, she saw who had attacked her. "and stay down. i don't need more foolish followers unneccacairily meeting accidental ends. there's been enough of that already" snarled loaw okar kahuakhaun, tucking his wing he had wacked her down with into his sides and turning back to face nightflight. ranak branarr wisely decided to say nothing more to the matter; but silently she would find a barb to marr that smug confidence he always carried with him one day soon. the battle ended soon enough with nightflight ragged and her chest thumping rapidly, wings hardly a scratch on her. silverwingthefury stood some distance away as well, most of his body a rather nasty rosy red around his claws and wings. nightflight had actually impressed and hurt far more that even loaw okar would like to admit; his pride saw to that. he decided something he had never done before and when he spoke it allowed even sidelined obuekhov was surprised. "let her go! we will settle this another time. a worthy advisory she has been and i will delightfully say this as well: you have acelled yourself." he turned to look his opponent right in her hard defiant orbs. "you have proven yourself a worthy advisory, little nightflight. i would run...run far far away where no one can see you. and my word of advice when you reach that supposed safe haven is don't leave there...othewise i and ours shall find you. GO!" that day was a gift and a curse, because even loaw okar realised he had been defeated in single battle with 'the others' watching. like them he had realized that she surpassed him in her sleek clever ways: it had nearly been the end of him. though the god protector was even now screaming its displeasure and so was his own mind, and he hated with a terrible loathing he had allowed her to fly away on wings that seemed to mock him, loaw okar had seen that she was a worthy opponent in the future and it would be his obsession to locate her and twist her mind with the help of the sky to become his tool. no other night fury that silverwingthefurys group had found surived, save one, a white fury named nona. it wasnt until much much later that kahuakhaun would find out about it and seethe.../span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the white being shook its head. it was time to get moving again. there was no telling who had been sent this time to track it. it had been running and hiding for so long since the day nightflight had become twisted and assimilated into becoming loaw shar versel that it was hard to imagine another existence. the beings head whipped behind it. a sound? a noise? surely that was always an ill sign. the being began to run again but soon heard the sound (definitely this time) intensify. "another night fury i knew it." about that time a dark shape suddenly shot into view and slammed into the white being at such force that both toppled into a tree with a nasty thud. thankfully, battle hardend, this being had dealt with many a follower set to track it and bring it before a certain dragon that wanted it alive. its enemy was currently a dazed youngish night fury of female origins with a muddy brown pelt who was groaning miserably and trying to right herself. "all too easy. if this is the best she has to send after me to try and seduce me then maybe its time for nightflight and her pathetic twisted bunch to find a new line of work." the blow was about to end this truly terrible excuse of a night fury when it finally strongFINALLY/strong recognized the pelt patterns of this particular fury sent to find it, when about the same time the fury looked up and said the words that made a flutter in its albino tummy "nona! wait!no! its me! its me! don't end me dont end me its me! im not here to harm you! hear me out!" (the white being was nona running you see: now named)!/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""wait...obuekhov? you? emyou?/em what. how. i don't..." nona stammered as she lowered her bleach paw t the ground. "what are you doing here i nearly ended your existence." the answer came bubbling out almost faster that nonas ear plates could capture."i donno i doono. i was sent by nightflight herself to find our leader loaw okar...i..i mean silverwingthfury. i refuse to call that brute anything else. i c-came to find you nona after that. nightflight says that there will be ni more failures ion my part. if i fail to bring you back...im done for. i already flew to find silverwing. he told me i am the weakest member he has cast eyes on and pathetic, says im...im...t-to emotional and over cautious when a proper fury should just strongact. /strongi don't know what to do" sobbed obuekhov, covering herself from nonas watching observant eyes. it was in a way comical: the very fury nona had thought was some hardened battle brute with scarred muzzle that wasnt afraid to snap a rebelling free night fury or two in half with no effort at all for its god protector, was actually the dragon nona had wanted to meet in time. she was one of those dragons that, to nona, still had a good heart in her somewhere despite what lurked on the outside, a dragon that was still trying to do what was right, despite her corrupted mind and the sky's influence on her soul. she gently eased a shivering obuekhov to uncurl her wings around that sad and haunted muzzle. "listen.i heard what hapened to nightflght a longtime ago. its time we try to bring out the good in her. i am the only free dragon around. let's make it two." obuekhov was utterly confused. "you were ordered to bring me before loaw okar and see me assimilated into a creäture of absolute hatred. nightflight...came and...offered to sacrifice herself to him to save ME, obuekhov, me! i intend to snap nightflight our of her trance the sky has on her and end its hold over her. even if i have to perish to do it. that dragon defeated once that tyrant kahuakhaun when her heart was happy and content and free; she will do so again." obuekhovs muzzle snapped to look nona in utter surprise? "you know this? you saw the fight from that long ago?"she nodded. "yes. let us go obuekhov, my old friend. its time to end all this and make sure no dragon looks at the heavens again." nona offered the other an encouraging grin, after all she had been through. "its bad for your health isn't it?"/span/p  
p style="text-align: start; max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"...TO BE CONTINUED.../span/p 


	5. From darkness she rises

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the dragon was getting impatient: only hours ago she had sent that night fury on that so-called-easy mission and she should have returned in tow with a bound and gagged companion hours ago. "i ask her to bring her here, a simple yet mundane task afteremsurely/em she had contacted loaw okar kahuakhaun and she can't even do emthat/em!" a rather poor unfortunate spire of rock took the brunt of the next outburst, breaking into pieces, robbing the entire spire of its kea stabilizing weight and raining down in stony shards. a similar flurry of tantrums had been going on all morning from the dragon of sky blue that was pacing about her realm, squinting up at the sky the same tones as her pelt, that angry beating little sun, this horrible bright daylight, as if it was the cause of all her problems. nightflight stronghated/strong the day. it was the middle of the afternoon and the well-known self sub leader of the night furys had forsaken the welcoming comfort of the usual blanket of stars and moons, the guiding and ruling god protector which they abided by, to wait/stand at the designated meeting spot the muddy brown night fury was emsupposed/emto bring Nona to. "obuekhov evakyl, you coward," muttered the dragon darkly under her breath, thinking about throwing another fit of anger, regardless of who was watching. indeed roughly a dozen or so other followers of the pacing, thundering, angry dragon were present and indeed watching. "nightflight, she is a young one. just let obuekhov do what she does. we are all on the same path to enlightenment and sharing all our power and truth with the so called free nert furt so they see it too arent we? don't forget that you were once an opponent to the likes of us and blinded from seeing the right side. after all, you are second to that only of the great flyer of importance loaw okar." 'the other' who had spoken up was formerly a free night fury himself. the bleach colored fury that nightflight kept fuming about, Nona, had accidentally convinced the speaker to look at the stars one night and become Abydos loaw persvek wer whedab, a dragon who nightflight when she was free, had voiced that she missed him./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"too late, loaw persvek realised that he had made an error in judgement and careless thinking. the other came crashing down full force in bodyweight, seething savagely, claws on the verge of ripping and tearing. "understand this, flyer, i am second to strongno one/strongleast of all that scheming flying scrap of shadow...his methods may be brutal but he needs me to mastermind his brawnish plans. i am the mind to his otherwise brutish killing. i am the planning behind his plot. i am the mass killer to the furies that fail to loojk at the sky. and that name no longer has any meaning for me. i am loaw shar versel now." an odd note of something...regret perhaps, had escaped her streamlined jaws, as if nightflight versel had been looking for something else to be in the future but was denied, or escape from an imprisoned past that was no longer available. this regretting tone became even more clear in her next words. "maybe...maybe in another time...another...place...would i have had that name...a time when...i wasnt who i am now; the deceptive leader over all of dragonkind and soon the known land. maybe emthen/emwould i had been called a name such as...longingly beautyful as that." if 'the others' could see her now and were looking closely enough, one might have observed an almost unnoticeable dragonic liquid tear streak quickly down nightflights muzzle. no one but Abydos loaw persvek actually caught the barely perceptible tear fall from that great dragoneses orbs. for some reason; maybe because he was struggling to remember a time when he too had been a different creäture, maybe because he didn't understand what she ment, maybe because he didn't care, whatever the reason he didn't comment about it. whatever had seem to leak into nightflights voice at her last few words was gone and for a good reason, she had to banish whatever remnants of old that still might reside inside of her, she knew, just emknew/em that Abydos had detected that voice she had used. most of all over anything else, she had to destroy whatever had possessed her to utter such words in the first place, because nightflight didn't like it...it had scared herself half to death!/span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""are you sure we are heading the right way? we could be heading in a dozen different ways from home. i thought my adventure hero knew his way home, but oh my, he seems to have suddenly lost his way i wonder why." after that near brush with Valhalla and everything else nasty and awfully descriptive when two humans had tried to reason with a mythical beast called a night fury, little knowing she was evil. nether human had known her name waa nightflight loaw shar versel or where she had come from. the god protector had whispered its voice in the evil furys mind to slay these two teens but she had failed after Ixora Jackson deftly felled a tree right onto nightflights slender back. trying to escape her predicament simply served to fan the flames of that dragons anger. her words screamed murder and butchery and everything most awful to listen to after them...that is if you could have understood the dragon tongue. Ixora and her male companion, blueflame or "john" as she liked to call him, couldnt. "would you just strongstop!?/strongit was just an accident. as i have said repeatedly you just upset and scared that poor dragon. we would have had so much of a better chance if you had just chucked that axe aside and approach it cautiously. she looked afraid too. it even nuzzled my skin for a bit before you had to scare it off."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"as she trundled along confidently twirling that axe though not neccacairly to purposely frustrate blueflame, Ixora rolled her eyes in exasperation. "upset and scared? i see...i see indeed...so...all you 'see' is a good kindness in what you see and do? well sorry, sweetheart but you never ever trust what you cannot sink your weapon into first and ask the questions if your target is still alive. did you even think to look closely at that thing? it had the look of a natural-born hungry killer. it wasnt just what you think it looked like on the outside. you were lucky you tugged me along to go for a supposed casual stroll...honistly i saved your hide." an argument of sorts had been traded all afternoon among the blanket of trees. "just because it emlooked/em it doesn't mean that it emwas" /eminsisted blueflame as the twosome were on their way to the village around the next cliff face in the distance. Ixora uttered a contemptuous snort and said nothing. "heck, im sure it was a good and gentle creature, i wanted to get to know it...you know...? who knows we might see it again soon" he continued. "you mean you will" she retorted matter of factly "i am not going to be around the next time you go adventuring outside the borders of my village to find it..." her words trailed as they heard a sound in the distance that was outside the normal bandwidth of noise on this island. "or it finds you" she finished wearily, looking around the immediate area and sky./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"a few moments later the source of the sound made itself known to both of them as it roared past and further back the direction they had traveled: another flying dragon like the one Ixora had immobilized this time black as night, stark against the periwinkle afternoon heavens. the two waited with tene expressions for it to come back after them but it didn't reappear. that event had efficiently silenced both of them into an ucomforterable stillness that was awkward yet now aware of the threat of another dragon somewhere out there that might or might strongnot/strong be all that hospitable if they encountered it. Ixoras weary eyes traveled from the skies to the slack mouthed blueflame, also gazing northward to that flying 'nert furt' had gone, she and him were travaling south to Ixoras village. "Magnificat!" he breathed, almost wishing that what he had witnessed would come back. "Ixora we have to go back." a decision was reached as she split up from him to wander the forest alone. "and don't even let me hear you crying and wailing that some mythological creature has got you with its talons or...something" said Ixora Jackson over her shoulder in contempt as she stalked off in a huff. "well fine then but don't come to be in turn saying you ever loved me or anything! i don't need you anyway!" he had only gotten a few more miles under his belt retracing back north when he heard a twig snap off to his right accompanied by a rather unpleasant muffled snarl. strongembr /em/strong/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"an instant later blueflame was knocked to the ground by a rather large dragon that had shot out of the brambles to tackle him. it almost immediately opened its bloody jaws to roar long and loud right at the boys face. the roar came out something like this: "HEHEHEEEEEE! I AM TRIUMPHANT! I AM THE ONE! I FOUND THE BOY, I FOUND THE BOY! HE IS MINE! HE IS MINE! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD ESCAPE ME! WHAT A JOKE! HEH..HEHE..HEHEEEEEEE!" though the dragon spit being flung in his face rather disgustingly he saw this wasnt the same creature he had seen with Ixora yesterday. and furthermore emthis/em one looked like it wanted to kill him right here and now this instant. as he didn't have a weapon to defend himself with (a rather clumsy move he admitted with a sigh) he was completely helpless and this creature knew it./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the night fury couldn't help but laugh: less than three days into its flight she had detected voices among the massed vegetation that looked from so far above like needles of emerald stabbing to the sky. slitiiva loaw ranak branar, tasked by loaw shar versel (nightflight) to set out and find the human boy she had inadvertently stumbled upon and failed to catch and kill because the god protector had deemed to nightflight they were a menace to its existence, had found them. "all too easy for my taste. i thought she had given me only higher tasks to accomplish. i almost missed you if it wasnt for you flesh and bloods whining and shouting. you know what i call that? a target?" sneered ranak branar in her lisping horrible rasp down at her catch. gazing at the wriggling sobbing little thing in her grip she decided she would toy with it for a while. "let me tell you a story, little worm. i have all the time in the world to rid myself of you; whats a few more minutes more or less, eh? heh-heh-heh. you reminded how i was myself so long ago; weak and mewling in the grasp something admittedly bigger and more influential that myself. a being i now revere but almost met his end at the claws of that one, versel. she thinks she's sooooooooo much better than the rest of us, little human grub, but oh, how i know that's not true. of course loaw okar has his faults. i-" her story was interrupted by the all too familiar voice of another, one much more in control of his confidence now that he had grown older and his senses more finely attuned to the moon and stars will than that of she. "really, branar, that's emall/em you can say of your leader? then i must say im...dissapointd in you." in her telling her story, she had allowed her own senses to become diluted of her surroundings and fail to notice the telltale signs of another of her own kind approatching./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""welllllllllllll if it isn't loaw okar himself." snapped loaw ranak branar, by way of greeting "did that stuffy old sea of stone caccoons you were nesting on make you cramped? or are you just lost. i thought you were going after the dragon nightflight wanted converted and dead." kahuakhaun nodded as he stepped into the full light of this heated, blasted sun, enjoying the gawking look the human boy threw him, taking him in, drinking in his awesome splendour. "alive, you brainless tool. or had emyou/em forgotten? the last free night fury will soon become one of us and loaw versel can surely handle one insignificant dragon on her own. obuekhov flew to retrieve me, and now i am here. i chose to track you to see where you were going, despite all your ruthless qualities of single areal claw combat, you emstill/em neglect to cover that noise your ragged wings make when you fly. that could be your eventual downfall to Nona and other flesh and bloods who come to expect our presence in their known perfect ordinary world." he made a show of examining his claws, liking them of dried bits of the last recent dragon he had gutted in the name of the god protector thoughtfully before looking smugly right into the humans eyes, his words addressed to loaw ranak branar. "but then, that's not my problem if you get yourself killed is it?" loaw okar was debating who he enjoyed watching more: the ghastly look on the humans face at the last bits of crusted liquid stick to his claws or the vicious fuming irritated dragon who pinned the human. after a dull minute of observing both their reactions he disided laughing time was over. he flicked a claw dismissively at the human, bord of her lack of ability to quit playing with her food. "well? what are you waiting for...kill it."/span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"meanwhile Nona and night fury obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss now turned double agent, trying to do what was right, had picked their way stealthily through the forest a bit aimlessly. Nona had found obuekhov and obuekhov had found Nona: two dragons that were in the outside, worlds apart. but on the inside shared one likeness and mind, to retake those unwilling unfortunate night furys that had once been so proud to roam free on careless airy wings and paws, starting with..."nightflight. we need to find and break the hold she has been twisted with" said obuekhov. "as one of the dragons older and more skilled than any i know at battling with a fluid liquid graceful streamlined style of fighting that very very few furies have; loaw okar kahuakhaun is her only equal at her level, why both are leaders of this whole assimilation movement. she will be extremely hard to defeat. i myself saw her nearly take down silverwingthefury at his own challenge, i myself nearly saw her kill him with my own eyes, saw him let her go because he was trying to admit defeat without strongactually admitting/strong that he had been beaten at his own game. he said to me once later, proud and boastfully lator that it was emhe /emthat had purposely let her get away so nightflight could be tracked down and killed. but we knew...we all knew the truth; emhe/em emlet her escape because he had been soundly defeated and didn't want himself obliterated to the likes of a newcomer. /emthat i saw and knew his loud proclamation was all a web of lies. he had been emfrightened/em Nona...its the only explanation as to why he did what he did; that was the first and last time i saw silverwingthefury show a tangible skein of fear."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nona was quick on the uptake for one that had been running and hiding for far too long from nightflights force, hunting her down, sending half-wit night furys to bring her back to her so she could be the last free dragon to become...one of them. "im done running. if nightflight wants to fight and see me screaming to be free of the pain and marring all my former night fury kin have been zapped into, maybe its long time we bring the fight to her. but we wont ask nicely to fight her. i will do it alone" she said to wich obuekhov sounded absolutely horrified. "it needs to be single combat..if and when, i have no option of failure, i win this fight, she will agree to be bound wing and paw and i will figure out how snap that dragon out of her demonic state." the muddy brown night fury next to Nona quickly flung all her worry into her next question that non knew was sure in coming: "and if you fail?" silence was her answer, just as obuekhov evakyl feared it would. "listen, my friend i just met in many many moon cycles, you cannot do this. you just simply cannot! what if you fail? what then? without you all hope for any future generations of young have absolutely no hope! don't have you have any common sense? let. me. help. i can pretend to have brought you just as i did nightflight not so long ago. i will be seen as honorary and more trustful in both silverwingthfurys eyes and hers, and when you challenge her...that is what you're going to do isn't it...i will come from the side and distract her while you grapple." nona shook her muzzle vehemently. "im sorry this has to be a fair fight if i succeed i succeed if i perish, then so be it. but it's not how i want this whole thing to unfold. i want nightflight to see that even if she does win and my free will is forever silenced by the moon, she might have seen that there was good in me and see that in herself too. all that matters is freeing that dragon. im determined to show her that if you try hard enough, you will succeed."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"and far away almost as if she had heard that vow spoken across the vast distances of land and earth and sea many many miles away, a certain weary dragon was beginning to wonder if she too was ready for such a fight. "it doesnt matter now" thought the dragon to herself. "i will Find nona and bring her before me. then all dragonkind will know that our reign extends to every corner of this known universe. we all will at last have seen the truth of our heavenly protector." the dragons voice became almost silky honey sweet, always one of her most dangerous moments. she picked one sky blue paw off the ground and tightened it into a fist "and what a sweet revenge it will be. I AM COMING FOR YOU, DRAGON! I AM COMING FOR YOU AND THERE WILL BE NO HIDING PLACE THAT I WILL NOT SCOUR! I AM NIGHTFLIGHT VERSEL!"/span/p 


	6. Battle on two fronts

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the moonlight night: once thought to have been so innocent and free of harm, a spectacle if you will, that of wich to seek enjoyment from for as long as a being wanted. completely harmless and yet...not so much for those four legged mythological beings known by the human viking race as 'nert furt, devastators!' some of these creatures of the first to look up and become twisted of mind had been some of the most powerful, Abydos loaw persvek wer whedab, zelyos loaw fahdon, nightclaw Sovesir loaw mitne, loaw okar kahuakhaun...the list went on as kahuakhaun converted or killed more furies. and it was young night fury obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss (meaning lonely warrior) that had brought the best most evilest of them all to loaw okar, the god protectors self-proclaimed undisputed leader of 'the others;' nightflight loaw shar versel. from the very beginning, kahuakhaun, also formerly known before his transfiguration as silverwingthefury, had obsessed and schemed consistently about finding that night fury the color of the infinite light blue sky. it wasnt because she was pretty and beautiful and shapely in appearance, an excellent preener and good-looking night fury with hardly a scratch on her or ragged looking wings. she was a fighter, that nightflight was, a natural-born killer if she chose to be and an excelled one at that. it became loaw okars life obsession from the day he let her escape, according to him that 'he let her go because he could then sic one of his followers on her and kill her on a whim when she was far enough out', to find her and twist her body and mind again and again and again until it was starved and ravaged and her fluid, dodging weaving streamlined attacks belonged to him. of course he found out later that one other albino-coated night fury named Nona had also escaped the recruiting drive, but he was less concerned about capturing her than his prize which obuekhov conveniently delivered to him. from then on nightflight versel was compleatly his to control..mind...body...and heart.../span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"as the ink black triple clawed paw descended toward the figure pinned to the forest floor came ever closer and still closer, one though permeated the screaming mind of the boy referred to as blueflame: he surely and utterly wasnt going to see anyone he ever held dear again. the boy remembered a time when death wasnt his choice to go by; after all he had emonly/em wanted to get to the mighty beast he and his partner in crime Ixora Jackson had met the other day. after walking through the night attempting to reach her village in the south, they had been attacked by yet emanother/em dragon the very next afternoon. blueflame had been dazzled by the appearance of a third 'nert furt' emerging from the trees; a huge looking tank of a creature with a stomach line of bluest sapphire matching its smoldering eyes in its black muzzle and gray bands along its frontal paws, eyes and back. for some reason, this one surely looked like it had seen a lot in its hundred years or so of its existence. "i wonder what these things think or even if they can think. well im sure these things can think or i wouldn't be trapped here with my life about to end" blueflame decided he must be going crazy. here he was, cracking up while his life was about to dissolve like snow at the claws of this mighty creature with the other blue-and-gray banded one looking on. "well you mise well finish me now. im waiting, dragon." then he heard a distant roar of some kind of animal, in the distance not too far away and rapidly going closer, his aggressor looked up in apparent surprise and then...the weight grinding his body into the dirt suddenly was gone. he cracked up as tears came to his eyes in the heat of the moment "heh, yep im crazy. im completely insane."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"muddy brown in color and not very attractive to the eye, but determined to reach him before there was no human child left, proud night fury obuekhov gathered her speed and launched herself at skitiiva loaw ranak banarr, as she whirled to face obuekhov in utter shock, at roughly fifty-eight miles per hour. "agggg what-" gagged ranak branarr in utter surprise, this reaction in itself and obuekhovs impact of her body against hers, made her limbs lock up from instinctively ripping/tearing with her claws in a bloody spray (as one of the stronger traits of ranak branarr that impressed loaw okar kahuakhaun) and made it fairly easy for obuekhov to slam one of her own kind hard to the ground on her back with a sickening thud. "oohhh" grimaced silverwingthefury off to the side, who recovered with an experienced swiftness that suited him very well in combat with nightflight and several other difficult night furys, but upon recognizing the pelt pattern of obuekhov did nothing to intervene. his jaws quirked slightly into a thin cold smile as he watched her pin loaw ranak branarr with her back claws. "ah yes...young young obuekhov...its been awhile hasn't it? well done, well done. bravo. you've had your little moment of play-and-win...now finish her..." recovering finally as well, skitiiva whipped her pitted head to look at kahuakhaun. "w-what?! you can't be serious. finish me? heheehh! HAAHAHAAHA! i think you had converted one too many dragons as of late...mabye its time you took a break...we all have a breaking point, you know." even in her state of surprise at being tackled ranak branarr managed a crooked smile in hopes that at last she had scoured a barb on her leaders ego. he just snorted. "for a recent follower of the sky to have so obviously surprised a supposed emveteran fighter/em she seems to have been beaten by a child." loaw okar pivoted to gaze up into the other night fury and purred encouragingly "go on, young obuekhov...fufull your destiny...end her and you will have at last secured your rightful place in our movement. the weak do not belong alive! end it! end her and i promise you will no longer be treated like the outcast others often condemn you as behind your flank. branarr obviously wasnt ment to stick around much longer anyway." seeing the conflicted emotions flitting across obuekhovs face, kahuakhaun decided to do something he had learned from nightflight; touch on her inner feelings. "do it! end her and avenge your old rotting mothers death! yes i didn't tell you about my encounter with her much did i? she was a wailing protesting pitiful creature, refusing to look up at those dazzling stars...such a shame too...just before she died...by my claw." he finished with evil finality, grin growing broader to twist his muzzle most gruesomely because his teeth were not retracted./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""NOOOOOO! YOU LIE!" howled obuekhov in hatred. ranak branarr seized upon the moment to rake a heavy gash on her left exposed frontal paw up to her brown colored wing. least to say, it was very painful experience for obuekhov, roaring loudly in pain and limping off to the side...right into the alkaline fireball readily discharged by loaw branarr into her opponents face. forgotten in the conflict was blueflame (who realised that in fact he was still sane and not crazy after all, would you look at that) and was slowly rising to his armored boots. he took in everything at once and almost declared himself insane again: somehow the brown dragon had appeared out of absolutely nowhere to tackle the black one pinning him, roaring in its face while the blue-and-gray banding colored creature appeared to be standing aside watching the whole thing with an expression that looked vaguely like human amusement. the wierd thing was, the boy had noticed that while the other two were growling/barking/hissing at eatch other and at him more importantly with threatening gestures, this winged newcomer hadn't even uttered a sound at him let alone laid so much as a emclaw/em on him. he jumped slightly as that night fury roared in what sounded of great pain as the black dragon that had been about to put him out of his misery bit its dagger of a claw into that brown creatures side savagely. blueflame felt a moments rush of great pity for the poor thing as he saw her take a fireball to the face. it was about that time that the boy realised something. "its...shes...shes...protecting me" he said in mounting awe. indeed obuekhov was trying her best to; and loaw ranak branarr had finally realised as well what kahuakhaun, still sitting there on his haunches smugly not doing a single thing to help her, had already figured out. "leaders always seem to know entirely everything," branarr spat out darkly under her breath at him hoping he wouldn't hear before ducking a clumsy swipe of obuekhov and jeering at her tauntingly. "youre emshielding/em that rather slim piece of meat arent you? heheheheheeee don't worry, once your dealt with i will make you hear the joyful sounds of his screams...dead its just silent meat." obuekhov set her jaws in a thin determined line against skitiivas taunts and kept fighting./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"meanwhile the blue-and-gray banded baddie was still sitting off to the sidelines; looking like it rather enjoyed the whole scene playing out in front of his blue eyes. blueflame decided to change all that; arming himself with a tree branch he had juuuuuuuuust managed to snapp off a larger tree and approaching the sitting winged beast from its blind spot from behind where (hopefully) it couldn't see him, or if it did it wouldn't react in time. "so help me Woden and Thor and pretty much everybody" he groaned as he swung a roundhouse swish at the dragons backside where his spines jutted the length of the creatures unsuspecting body. BASH! coughing profusely on wood dust, the boy let go of the branch which had mostly 'liquified' into splinters of nothingness and waited to see what had happened. the muzzle of the dragon he had just hit tuned slowly in what looked disturbingly like amusement to look at him through the dispersing splinters. it wasnt even scratched by the assault. it opened its mouth and uttered "growlololollllllllllll! gmmmmmmmggrrrrrrrrrr? ggrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggrggowwwwllll? grwl growl? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrowll grrr grr owlllllllll grr grgrrrrrrr grrrrrrr!" which ment "really that's the best you can do? i find your antics rather humerous. how easy it is to trick flesh and bloods; a simple trick, to face straight ahead and lure you in close like i hadn't seen that little worm sneaking up upon me, planing his treacherous motives. foolish foolish move. all done? then its strongmy/strong turn." tuning on practiced paws silerwingthefury, otherwise known as loaw okar kahuakhaun, leaped toward the humans throat for the death strike./span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nona was flying. she was flying and flying and flying toward her destination. she grimaced worse still this destination had a name too: "nightflight versel. im coming for you." back in the forest earlier the two of them had outlined a plan as bit by bit it took shape. they had heard shouting and screaming, obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss determining it was from a young male boy. she had offered to deal with whoever the sky and moons converted furies had been sent to surely silence that voice crying out for help while she insisted Nona go after the one she wanted to set her mission on. that dragon was beginning to question whether it had been a good idea to let obuekhov go off on her own into whatever danger awaited her. then reminded herself that it wasnt her choice whether to dictate anthers actions "i will end up just like kahuakhaun. or worse blind like nightflight is" she thought. the landscape gradually shifted from needle like tree spires back to the usual hard stone mountainous region that Nona suddenly remembered was the area in wich she had traced direction loaw okar kahuakhaun sent night furys to bring her back to him for assimilation by their god protector, of wich this was thier base of operations. the sky sure was becoming cloudy dark and difficult to navigate through, best she landed soon; a storm was coming. thankfully she spotted a shelf of rock ahead set under a shelter of mountain outcrop. it would do her well to get out of the rain that had suddenly started to fall thick and fast. then it happened./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"there was an odd noise from the distance, closing fast in nonas ear receptor plates. an amethyst colored ball of alkaline flame flashed past nonas wings from the slate gray clouds above before slamming down to the mountainous earth below with a resounding boom. instantly on the defensive, she circled on albino toned wings looking for whoever had dared to test her abilities. several successive attacks followed the first, Nona catching the last fireball on the under-tummy, grunting more with pain at the onslaught and surprise than the blow itself. that section of her body was now blackened slightly and thought it would become white again as the old scales fell out over times she was now angry and when she was angry that didn't bode well for her airy opponent whoever it was. Nona caught the vague smoggy form of two angular wings stretched from a barell shaped body. "show yourself hiding coward. too afraid to fight me are you? then i will just come in and fight you myself!" Nona tried bravely. a bubbling mocking laugh, female in origin, was accompanied by a monstrous clap of thunder that resounded around her ominously. this time she was barely able to evade the claws that flashed frighteningly quick from behind her out of the fog that she saw were aimed at ripping one of her steering flaps off to make her flight uncontrolled and thus heightening the possibility Nona would crash. her target had yet to even utter a sound, strange for a night fury but then again, maybe it couldn't talk. humored at that thought, Nona rolled sideways to the telltale buildup of a fireball about to be launched, soaring neatly to her left. trying to get higher altitude she caught another glimpse of her attacker and smiled slightly as Nona finally realised it was indeed another of her own kind, almost certainly belonging to its leader kahuakhaun. she also could observe before it disappeared that it was the ebony pelt common of night furys, a massive brute of a body with muscled wings that were primed and angled clumsily. "this ones an amateur. this shouldnt take more than a few minutes at least."so fouced were her eyes on the spot where she last saw it and preparing an attack from somewhere below her that she never saw the claws flash again, scratch a glancing blow on nonas left-wing edge and disappear into the foggy sky. "how could it suddenly possibly fly from above and attack like that? what type of aerial move have these twisted demons learned from loaw okar?" she thought in worry. so it knew where she was; maybe it was time to deceive the deceiver./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nona flapped her wings hard and attempted a move she had done so few times since finding out nightflight wanted to assimilate her to the skies will, it was incredibly risky and required procise timing to get t right, it theoretically emcould/em work and fool her advicary if done correctly. "its up here! i smell her wing beats!" shouted the brute in the cloudy atmosphere to nonas below right, obviously having not learned the tactful trait of 'keeping quiet' yet. she got up to the desired hight Nona wished to be...and then suddenly snapped her wings closed and let her heavy bodyweight drop silently past where she thought the rather obnoxious gruttel voice had come from and hover at its level. meanwhile the big ebon fury flapped noisily to the spot where his quarry had last been flying around in, mighty head twisting thickly this way and that to catch sight of his prey no longer present. "she's not here!" he hollered again, practically empainting/em himself aemnice/em delicious target for Nona. she hardly could say no, lighting up his more vulnerable underside with plasmablasts. then she was upon him, ripping at his exposed wings, his neck, his back spines, before the brute recovered himself. he was a huge one after all, breaking many a rebelling dragons necks clear in half with his teeth purely for spite when they stubbornly refused to comply with the skys tempting lure of eternal freedom from whatever that creatures darkest fear or worry was. he recovered rather slowly though, showing inexperience in his combat skills that Nona could exploit, and thrust all four paws out to knock her off him. "pretty move, sweetheart; did mommy dragon teach you that?" he drawled in a gravel voice, voice reeking overconfidence in its abilities. that settled it for Nona; foolish, big, brash, a bully...all of these qualities made him despite all that the brute looked on the outside, a coward and furthermore not much of a threat for someone of nonas skills. "but wait," she thought as a particular thought wormed uncomfortably into her mind "i could have recalled the laugh i heard was not male?" an answering lightning flash brightened the very air white enough for Nona to startle, giving the brutish night fury time to fireball her full in the face. that hurt! this really a bad idea to be fighting one on one out here in the outright middle of a thunderstorm. one or ether of the combatants could be struck or go limp from shock at the sound; night furys were of course very sensitive to sound. "not so tough are you sweetheart?" called the brute annoyingly in front of her before flying back into the clouds to attack again./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"she was becoming more and more confused with all the thunder and lightning. she needed to finish the fight quickly befre...and thats when the horrible thought struck her...right about the same instant she heard that other slight swishing noise, barely detectable, of the claws that suddenly lanced out of the slate gray murkiness to claw Nona deep in her right leg. "aaggggggggg" she roared in agony, blood dripping down to the ground far below. another fireball whizzed from below to lightly graze her muzzle, another off to the upper left followed shortly after to impact explosively on her back. yes Nona needed to end this and now the thought finally came full force into her mind with awful clarity: there were emtwo/em attackers out there, not one. their battle strategy was simple, actually, one would be the so-called battering ram and make their intended target so intently focused on that assailant that it would be vulnerable to whichever chose to sneak up from behind to deal extensive damage until their flying quarry was no longer alive. this brute, this ebon colored one was the distraction; what remained to be seen was if he was purposely not being agile to lure his foe in or was he always that big and stupid to begin with? if he was the distraction that who was the other attacker? judging from the attacks Nona further dodged to escape being burned or clawed at from both attackers, this other shadowy night fury with its silent darting lunges was much much more adept at masking its identity, wing beats, direction of fireballs and angle of attack. this other night fury was, mildly put, extremely dangerous and very deadly! Nona eventually managed to rip open a rather beautiful (or gruesome depending on how you viewed it) deep gash into the brutes side when he flew to intercept a blow from her paws feinted at his face. "lucky shot" he growled in pain. he backed off into the cloud cover for fear of nonas pursuit to finish him off. but she was no murderer like he no doubt was and dismissed him for the moment, instead straining for the sound of her other mysterious unidentified night fury. "come out where i can see you and fight with your sickly version of honor and dignification" she tried halfheartedly goading the other. the only reply she got was the stifling oppressive silence of the clouds scudding around her body and the slight patter of heavy raindrops that continued to pelt down on her. the words disturbing part about this was her attacker still hadn't said a word, not a growl to taunt, nothing. there had to be a way for the other to reveal itself...then, suddenly, it did. claws reaching out to rend nonas throat, a bright white flash revealing the terrible grin plastered to her face in delight of the expression of stifled shock mirrored on nonas face, was the night fury Nona had least expected to see again: "strongnightflight?!" /strong"yesssssssssssss," hissed that silken all too familiar voice. "it isssssssss i."/span/p  
p style="text-align: start; max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"...TO BE CONTINUED.../span/p 


	7. Breaking point a cometh

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the young boy of thirteen or so, possible one-day chief of the islands village, trapped as he was, barely, just barely, avoided the repellant claw with gray banding that would have neatly sliced him to ribbons. yes, this day could be described as possibly not emthe/em best day of blueflames life so far but it sure was turning out to be quite the day nevertheless. his opponent, a rather large four-legged dragon called a night fury, with a blue stomach and gray bands spreading the length of its legs, eye and down its back to its tail, was unfortunately not here to be friendly. "foolish foolish boy: did not your elder tell you not to wander the woods alone?" the dragon inclined its muzzle skyward, where the first signs of nightfall were approaching. "especially...at strongnight?" /strongblueflame couldnt understand the dragon tongue of course but he certainly caught the tone behind the errant growls directed to him. "boy that thing is angry at me..but why? i didn't upset these things they came attacking us. i just don't get why they are trying to kill me. i guess i better be on my guard" he said to himself. he looked around for something to defend himself with as the dragon paced leisurely closer. "i think unlike her, who plays with her food and can't see fit to kill it already, i shall have to take the duty up myself." by 'her' the dragon ment the other two dragons of muddy brown and black pelts rolling around exchanging blows. "get emoff/em you young inexperienced bafoon. don't, agggg, make me ask you again, errrrrrrr, because when i have to ask twice, ooomphhh, i get angry. emstand still already; /emyou're making me frustrated" scowled the ugly voice of skitiiva loaw ranak branarr down onto her opponent, obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss. now you see; not all night furys were bad. some were unwilling to be converted but converted nonetheless through not of their own wills, no, their leader loaw okar kahuakhaun had killed all the weak furys of his kin and forced the stronger ones to turn their heads to the stars above to be assimilated. obuekhov was such a fury who had retained enough willpower to slightly resist the moons pull to retain enough of who she originally had been on her mind...but not her body./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""what are you doing?" hissed the god protectors voice in her mind. "aren't we all alike you and i? fellow creatures should not be harming other creatures should they. that will have to be addressed." and quite suddenly just like that, she found she could not move, akin to being paralyzed. luckily for her, blueflame came to her rescue, probably because his felt those gouges and that fireball to that dragons face had been ment fo him and needed to repay credit where credit was due. he threw a cupped double hand of dirt into the gray-and-blue banded winged dragon menacing him and ran to obuekhovs prone body, yelling feebly "buddy...im here." caught by surprise but quickly realising what was happening, ranak branarr whirled her powerfully built body to face the boy and grinned darkly, extending her retractable teeth and snapping them open and closed. "heheeheeeeee! dinnnnnnnnerrrrrtiiiiiiiimmmmmme! is the big string knight trying to save the wounded hapless ugly princess? my my what stupidity." then she pounced at him. calmly brushing dirt clods off his eyes so he could see, loaw okar (who was blueflames opponent he had smacked that log on) made no move to retaliate against the humans distraction as he realised what happened. "she needs a lesson in obedience it seems" lanced the voice of the stars and moon in silvewingthefurys mind. kahuakhaun had understood what happened; what the sky could and would do to its followers and emfor/em its followers such as provide their bodies with power, markings and a sence of delicious delightful blood lust, it could also take away. he grasped it well and now knew what the sky was doing, draining obuekhov whom kahuakhaun himself slightly trusted of all her life and the power it had bestowed upon her when she had been forced to look at the moon. in all his existence as becoming loaw okar, he had not seen the god protector directly intervene in skirmishes like this. what was happening before his eyes was enough to make even him hesitate in padding too close to see just what was transpiring./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"obuekhov arytiss didn't care about any of that. she was too busy trying to ignore the awful horrible weakness that had started in the pit of her tummy and traveled all through her quickly like a virus, feeling so weak she toppled over onto her side like a statue, limbs locked up unable to move her legs as they should be moved. finding that her eyes still moved she sought out the figure of the human child she had sought to protect from harm trying to duck past ranak branarr, who was now toying with him 'playfully' as a cat would a mouse that had chosen to unwisely leave its mouse-hole at that moment, and cooed a heartfelt plea. "help me, human...please...i need your help. i might not be around much longer if you do not help me, im here to protect you from these two, who are evil; but only if you can break the god protectors hold over me." she thought harder and then uttered "im here for you." she hoped the human would understand her words, grasp the pleading note in her moan that was all that the child could hear. but it wasnt blueflame who saved the day! a hard-edged double-sided axe whirled from the leafy shadows with pinpoint precision and nailed the unsuspecting loaw branarr with her tail pointed toward it right in her tail. forgetting that she had been playing with her prey she lashed out instinctively in awide arc with her unwieldy evil claws and hit blueflame full in the chest, unleashing a spray of vermillion and hurling the boy into a tree across the clearing with a sharp crack. he slumped to the meadow floor, ether dead or unconscious. still seething like a wild uncontrolled animal, skitiiva branarr ignored the immobilized obuekhov and turned toward where the axe had been thrown from, the axe blade still stuck into the black creatures tail, causing continual pain to spike up her veins, and stopped in surprise: Ixora jackon had returned!/span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""strongnightflight!?" /strongexclaimed the albino dragon in utter shock, horror and surprise. her adventure had begun with her and obuekhov arytiss meeting up with this dragon after realising that she wasnt a threat and, in fact, wanted to help her. hearing the distant screams of a young boy unknowingly to them belonging to blueflame, Ixora Jackson having split off from her earlier to head south to her village, obuekhov arytiss had taken after the boy and whomever had probably heard him as well to protect him. that left her partner of the pelt of white free to chace after nightflight loaw shar versel, the 'eyes of the alone but powerful' night fury. Nona had taken to her wings that probably were like a beacon to attract other of loaw okars twisted lot to her; where as they blended into the sky with darker pelts hers was as white as snow, only her paws and around her eat plates were black markings, hardly to be called a camouflage. a big storm full of rain and even worse thunder and lightning had converged on Nona shortly after winging her way into the eastern mountain region in search of loaw versel. as it rapidly became apparent to Nona, emnightflight/em had found emher. /emso far dodging and weaving had helped Nona survive the first few successive assaults on her from the sky. lightning didn't help her sight recover any quicker nor those overly loud thunderclaps that sounded like it was booming inside your ear receptors. not to mention the ratio of 2 to 1 in opposition, she thankfully had managed to temporarily disable the lesser skilled of the two, a massive big ebon-scaled brute that looked frightening to battle against but not much could be said about his fighting skills. with him out of the fight for now recovering, Nona had to work hard to stay alive from those flashing claws that would slink from the cloudy sky and try scratching her! while the brute was average level at hiding himself, minus the shouting boasting voice Nona had found out to be very irritating to listen to, her other mysterious silent flying attacker was extremely good at scouring hits on Nona with a style of fighting that was almost...elegant, Nona had finally decided it was. no longer caring to hide her identity during the next lightning strike, nonas ace fighter had finally revealed herself, claws ready to rend her throat, evil grin twisting that dragoneses sky blue muzzle into something of a nightmare. "yesssssss" purred nightflight loaw shar versel, in full beautiful splendour, wings hovering, poised to their full extent as she reared up, her white strip of stomach stark against the darkness of that ashen cloudy background. "it issssssss i."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nona luckily manged to evade in the nick of time those wicked daggers extending from nightflights paws aimed at her vulnerable neck. nightflight reared up again after her miss to nail her and flapped those majestic blue-white sprinkled dotted wings slowly, eying Nona with a goast of a smile on her jaws. she took a long while to respond, and Nona knew she was at long last about to hear something from an enemy she once considered her friend, who had sacrificed herself to kahuakhaun willingly to give Nona more time, more time to save the remaining lives of those free night furys left. in the end only she was the sole remaining dragon ever spared with continual running and eluding her former kin. "you know...it doesnt have to end this way" whispered nightflight with an evil gleam twinkling deep in her orbs. "im tired of following orders. loaw okar kahuakhauns too blind to see it but i know no matter how many hunters i send after you emnever/em will abide and surrender to the inevitable will you? i admit, you have managed to whittle our numbers to four thousand or so. so i conceived an entirely different approach to our problem; why not lure you to us? it would be so much simpler for us to lure you in than waste needless lives to end by your claws, wouldn't you think?" Nona flapping her wings a distance away took the hint offered to her nightflight havent voiced yet and cursed aloud her foolishness, the other offering a nasty smirk knowingly./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""so at stronglast/strong do the pieces of the puzzle fall into place for you, little dragon? we neveremwanted/em to hide ourselves to you this day. we never emwanted /emto assimilate you now. allow me to elaborate for your confused, frail mind to comprehend, my little white dragon; i and a few others such as the rather admittedly dumb mass of muscle you dispatched earlier are tired of kahuakhauns bland nearsighted way of doing things. he's never quick enough, never emsly/em enough, like i have always been to rule over the unspoken masses of our god protectors followers. they need a true leader. a real ruler. someone they will all bow in reverence to. i and my select group have become discontent with his methods so we will seize the right opportunity to take the position away from him. then only then, will this land know true fear and the error of their ways to any of those who refuse to see the truth. yes, i and my partner have been tracking you since shortly before you set wing in these mountains. 'tis a pity, i thought you were so much more skilled and a worthy opponent than i had guessed you were." she grinned nastily, claws gleaming evilly in the darkness, wich seemed to suit her just fine, and Nona grasped what nightflight was here for. "im going to kill you, dragon. im going to kill you and all you have done to all the followers you have wiped off this earth. kahuakhaun would have seen you become one of us; up until recently i would have agreed with him with all the beats of my heart. now i see differently. i will rid this whole land of free dragons...and ill start with you." nightflight righted herself and shot toward Nona lightening fast, plowing into her midsection and sending both rocketing through the air. she fought back at half strength: after all that loaw versel had just said she still didn't want to harm her, just subdue her and make her see reason. Nona conjured up a fireball in her throat and launched it at her, blowing the attacking dragoness off her and stopping the acceleration nightflight had been shoving her with her wing power./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"if only she could pin that sky blue elusive twisted minded demon in somehow. "you wont even stand a chance, little dragon. as one of the most powerful nert furts ever to grow up and live, i have beaten loaw okar, seen in his eyes that i would have taken care of him efficiently if not for his sudden choice to let me live that day. he was afraid, just as you will be before you cease to be a threat. i am too powerful to be beaten. at last all our problems will have been..taken care of." nightflights leader! of course! there was the opening Nona had been looking for, a door, a way in, the beginning of a seed of doubt to box her opponent into, make her unsure about her motives in all this mess and finally make this once proud free independent elegant creature see what she has done. "nightflight...i refuse to call you that ugly twisted evil name you have been givin...come back to us. remember your old self and how you beat him, that twisted dragon. remember how afraid he looked when you were allowed to escape! he was afraid of you. remember who you emare/em!" Nona choked on her last word emotionally, trying to get this lost dragoness to stop. trading swipes thrust at her, she traded blows with nightflight versel who tried at every opportunity to find an opaning and end this quickly: nightflight wasnt one to waste her time toying. Nona opened her jaws again and continued while grappling. "yes you beat that tyrant once...you can do so again. obuekhov, your supposed follower? she told me the entire story, all that i am telling you, right now. despite all this evil you have done, and your overwhelming obsession to convert me or kill me over the course of your ambitions, i still believe in you." nightflight landed a gash on nonas shoulder, the pain agonizing and drawing red liquid, but to her worth that injury. "i wouldn't know that nor do i even care. all that matters is ridding myself the likes of you. since the partner i brought along was the distraction and easily disposable to me failed to do his job, i will have to finish this myself" maybe it was her imagination as versel flashed a grin at her but this time it seemed slightly more strained than it had been./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Nona tried again as their wings interlocked and drove nightflight backward by her momentum as she lightly aimed to scratch her opponent on the chest. "i don't believe that and i don't believe you do, ether. you emwant/em to remember me because i was the only other of my whole kin of furys to not have been killed by kahuakhauns corrupted force on that dreadful day, nightflight. and it was because of that made you hate me wasnt it? a...after all the sky has whispered in your mind surely you of all night furys are a leader! just...the wrong kind of leader." her voice was laced with a heartache that she hadn't chosen to show in the face of such a monster but she did. maybe then she would break through the trance the god protector had enduced on her. "i know you can understand me, despite your opposing view that you cannot. snap out of this web of lies and deceit you have been unceremoniously thrust into! you may think you have seen the truth when all the while you have been strongblinded/strong by them. what the sky tells you isnt truth. trust me, they are an enticing sight to look up and never be what one was again, its easy to lose yourself to things that draw you in...you were tempted by kahuakhaun. i know the feeling, nightflight, i know and i understand this, what you're going through." this time nonas opponent looked slightly flushed upon hearing all this as she managed to flip Nona off her body and fluidly dodged a counterattack. then, for just the briefest of a second, there it was...something...just the faintest briefest smidgen of that friendly twinkle in nightflights eyes. Nona caught that barely seen twinkle and hope fluttered in her stomach that she might have broken through to the dragoness. the next instant a wicked appendage ripped open a jagged cut on the albino toned furys wings, causing her to stumble from more pain. the usual hissing elegant silken voice was replaced as her will broke like a torrent of anger, unleashing nearly a year of roiling hatred that she had masterfully concealed and crushed away inside of her./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""YOU KNOW NOTHING! NOTHING! ALL THE WHILE YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I USED TO BE: NO RECOLLECTION OF MY PAST! WHO I WAS DOES NOT MATTER! ONLY WHO I HAVE BECOME WITH THE HELP OF THE MIGHTY MOON AND STARS! YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY COMPREHEND THE PAIN I FELT FOR THE FIRST TIME WHEN LOAW OKAR OUR LEADER TOLD OBUEKHOV ARYTISS AND SKITIIVA BRANARR TOLD THEM TO RESTRAIN ME WHILE I LOOKED UP INTO THOSE STARS!" her voice was laden with outright bloody hatred. "you can understand nothing of the link! for a year ive been like this and i am utterly and happily content! the god protector has shown me the way to enlightenment! i am who i am for a reason! when your blood is spilled tonight i will no longer worry and became restless every day about a threat to us to undo all that we have worked so successively to build! i intend to keep it that way!" Nona could hear the tell-tale wing beats of another night fury, the massively built brute-with-wings was about to rejoin the fight, a 'luxury' Nona could really do without right now. even though the other was only really a moments annoyance, that fury might just be able to gang up on her enough for nightflights treacherous attacks to find their marks enough times to end her. Nona had one last chance to try something. she suddenly stopped trying to defend herself, marely letting nightflight do her worst, abrasions and lacerations quickly covering her all over, but if she was about to say next worked, it wouldn't even matter. versel blinked in apparent surprise as she saw Nona drop her bleeding paws and simply hover close to her, making no move to further defend herself. "im sorry it has to be this way. if your rage makes you so evil as to harm someone you used to know and care...then...you have me, nightflight, you have me...youve won. i am your prize? then end me, here and now with no one but the clouds betwen us and the earth below. just you me and the god protector, if it's watching. you wanted me so bad as the last free dragon known and you have her...emim/em her." Nona held up her head high in a gesture of one who had fought valiantly and was about to await whatever fate befell her. "i will not fight...just...just...end it...here...now...just us two...alone. im ready to accept my destiny."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"it was as if nightflight loaw shar versel, 'eyes of the alone but powerful' and mass deceiver, well known dragon to all of 'the others' assimilated by the sky, had been hit by a jagged bolt of lightening. she threw back her head and roared at deafening decibels, feeling like her heart might burst inside of her. she roared and roared for a long time. "whats happening? are you safe?" called the gruttel brutes voice a ways out and closing the distance to rejoin the seemingly already won battle. but no one cared about him at the moment. when at last Nona could un-press her ear plates from her head to listen again after nightflights roaring abruptly died down, she was greeted by a sight that shocked her into wordless silence. a flash of lightning stabbed through the clouds behind the figure in front of her: nightflight drooped, her wings flapped slowly almost with a life of their own, battered and bloodied by their battle in the sky, her head sagged listlessly toward her chest almost limp-like. even her steering sub rudders that usually looked so beautiful wer slick with sweat. nightflight was panting with exhaustion, looking like she had screamed her entire heart out and there was nothing left to vent out. nona was shocked, she didn't know what to think, wether it was a trick or something else, so she stayed at a safe distance from her to be sure. slowly, still panting hard enough from her lungs to be audible to Nona across the distance, nightflight looked up into nonas muzzle again. what she saw there gave nona shivers: nightflight looked...weary...tired...like the world had taken too much out of her normally so uplifting springy evilness. like whatever unspeakable things she had put into the world was now emptying itself onto her shoulders and she was unable to take it all at once. when she spoke it was full of something Nona also hadn't heard in her voice in over a year: regret. "s-so i...i beat...s-silverwingthefury? i really d-did that all on m-my own?" Nona didnt know what was exactly going on but she had made her move, now it was time to see what would happen next.../span/p  
p style="text-align: start; max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"...TO BE CONTINUED.../span/p 


	8. There and back again

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"it was a battle in the forest that happened to commence: on one side was a thin-lipped determined human female in her teens, her weapon of choice being the double-bladed edged heavy axe that was stuck in her opponent, an ebon scaled 'nert furt' called skitiiva. of course that was a name this creature emused/em to be referred to as, its new designated name over the last year of its new existence was loaw ranak branarr, the name given to it one night as she was forced to look up at the sky and become entranced. every time a night fury or other dragon glanced up at the sky long enough they became twisted of mind and almost literally couldn't look away from the blanket of stars dazzling addiction; the first case being silverwingthefury on a cliff one night who rose to power and uncontested leader over all the rest that soon followed. their 'short new lifes' ment that they had been converted by the power the god protector gave them and their seeming purpose little knowing it was simply a blind lure and addiction where others soon followed. two other dragons stood in the clearing and two other human, or rather ranak branarr had been struck by one of the humans axes and goes instinctive with a claw attack to knock one flesh and blood against the far tree and possibly killed him: and then there was one...ixora jackson, the other human viking gritted her teeth fiercely in an attempt to convince this large ebon aggressor to keep its distance./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"she and the dragon circled each other slowly weighing the odds of surviving an attack. "lets see, this thing is big, powerful looking, probably could swallow me whole...hmmm what are my chances of survival i wonder? hmmm" she thought aloud to herself, looking for twitches in her opponents muscles that hinted at a pounce. "its hammer time" she growled and feinted right. the black night fury in front of her wasnt as easily fooled, simply batted a leasurely paw and connected it with Ixoras midriff. she sprawled hard on the grassy meadow, coughing out dust. she jumped nimbly to her feet as the full bodyweight of the creature crashed down to crush the human girl who was no longer there. meanwhile our second dragon lay paralyzed on the ground, limbs locked up because the god protector had stopped obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss meaning 'the lonely warrior' from harming one of the dragons own followers. she turned her eyes to the new arrival and tried to communicate "help me before its too late...i can feel my life slipping away im dying...the moon and stars are weakening me...weak...so weak...its draining me...human child...your companion is in mortal danger i can smell he is alive but you must act quickly; your opponent is loaw ranak branarr a very vicious savage opponent. she wont hesitate to kill . i was in league with this creature once that grabbed nightflight in his in pain and fury to restrain another. you must hurry, human child. help me break this bondage im trapped in and i will fight alongside you." even those words tasted like a sour apple on her jaws with the blood lust flowing inside of her body that gave her the strength and bondage to the god protector, obuekhov arytiss knew deeper than that which cursed her that she was helping a good cause./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""hmm interesting: this male flesh and blood has a companion, even more resourceful but foolhardy that the boy i have seen. she is a brave but hopelessly outmatched foe i recon. this fight shall be interesting. let branarr exhaust herself. serves her right for the cutthroat schemes she foolishly attempts to backstabb me with. there can be only emone/emleader and that position belongs solely to i." mused the figurehead of 'the others' loaw okar kahuakhaun meaning "colorful" in dragon tongue. rather than charge in to aid loaw branarr he hung back near the treeline bordering the clearing, she tended to be blatantly rebellious to orders and so..maybe this would teach her a lesson...even if that lesson ment the sudden abrupt termination of her existence. eventually after near misses with said creatures attacks, Ixora luckily grabbed onto her axe and jerked it loose from skitiivas tail, temporarily paining the opponent with a roar. now Ixora had fought hard in her village home and was praised for being the best of the best fighters the village had to offer against threats even at young age! she put these abilities to the test as she dodged and rolled branarrs wild attacks. "i will end you and then scatter your remains to the worms to feast this day. i was tasked by loaw shar versel to find the human boy and it was easy for someone such as myself" she raved nastily, smacking her tail into Ixora Jackson, sending her sprawled-eagled to the grass. she snorted haughtily. "get up andemfight already!/em this? this is just laughable!" obuekhov tried to growl in her throat at skitiivas taunts but couldn't, paralyzed as she was./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"ixora landed suddenly in her field of view with an explosive "oommmpf. that double treacherous slime." she stiffened when the humans eyes sought out and caught those of the brown scaled night fury gazing back at her, by the look in that humans orbs she clearly hadn't anticipated landing right next to another creature. "help me. i know you do not get our language but i beg you understand my tone of sounds; i can help you. free me. we will fight those tyrants together." beyond the viking female obuekhov heard a roar of anger, saw a recovered (and very angry) skitiiva branarr charging full on toward both of them. "behind you. move quickly," the downed fury tried to moan, already an idea how to free herself from the moons power draining her life away. her mutual friend seemed to understand and rolled out-of-the-way upon hearing the pounding of many-clawed paws. obuekhov arytiss braced herself, saw skitiiva utter a surprised grunt, and skid full on into her unable to heel hard enough as her bodyweight worked against her. her impact somehow inexplicably freed her from the awful weakness inside her the sky had on her. she rose on shaky limbs and rose with a start to catch loaw okar kahuakhaun, whom she hadn't noticed until now, slinking over to the tree where...obuekhov broke into a run."her kin!" she gasped, seeing the boy slumped unceremoniously against the tree trunk unconscious. she knew right then and there she was committing rebellion against the greater powers of her leader. silverwingthefury tuned expertly in time to flap his wings out of the impact zone. "once again you are too niieve to see that this insurrection will be quickly crushed. the god protector has given us all the things we need and it doesn't include opposition." he smiled knowingly, touching on obuekhovs feelings. "you're just like your dead mother; hesitant and rebellious!"/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"from there the fighting was long, hard and bloody; Ixora amazed that this big muddy brown creature was puting her all into fighting the blue-and-gray banded one, even covering for ixora when she thought ranak branarr was getting the better of her; obuekhov, impressed with the humans evasive stamina. "she would make a fine opponent to fight...provided she was a nert furt." she thought with a sheepish grin to herself. "whats so funny? having fun thinking about the moment i tear into you? yes i would relish that thought; it isn't long in coming ether" came branarrs ugly lisping sneer, landing a blow glancingly on obuekhovs wings. she grunted in pain and retaliated by tearing a line into her wing happening to be in reach. pulling back gave both sides oppertnunities to assess eatchothers new injuries. kahuakhaun and branarr shared a knowing look. "move against the human girl, i will handle this deserter to our cause. despite obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss fighting style i feel you aren't quite ready yet to handle her. ah, i havent had this much enjoyment since the battle against my loaw shar versel." she threw her leader a dirty look in frustration but grudgingly obliged what she was told. "come here you little human worm, let me give you a hug you will not soon forget." she lashed her tail quickly forward wich ixora rolled aside and swung her axe; biting deep into her ebon hide, making her roar her agony. loaw okar gave a snort of annoyance at the sight and turned his head back to face obuekhov once more who waited wearily for his first move. "so whats the point?" he growled in a sing-song tone, lunging for her throat. "the human i mean: why do you need to protect it? after all you have gone through and faced as one of us, how were you able to break the stars control on your body? im intrigued to find out how." silence greeted him in a way enraging him more than open defiance or a challanging insult would have made. "tell me."/span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""tell me how i did it" floated the world-weary voice though the cloudscape, flying west."how was i able to defeat him. you said...you said he let me go? afraid he was?" the other mystery figure in the murkyness that was the voices companion echoed back "yes you did, my friend. i finally decided it was not worth fighting for, al this time ive been going about it wrong...if i submitted to your will and explained what you were doing was evil and unjustified, all this warring, all this evil you have committed, then you could have seen what you had done was wrong. i stopped fighting you. i stopped because there was two options open to me; fight you and possibly lose to your hatered...or give and and make make you see that ones love for another was strong enough to break through your imprisonment the sky had over you. so i ceased fighting you and waited to see what would happen." the second voice sounded rather pleased with itself. "and i was right; your sence of reason won out over your transfiguration the stars did to you." the first voice when it replied still sounded melancholy, "you're right of course...but...i will always be forever scared that i will be sucked back into what i once was that i could become again. what emwas/em i? what...unspeakable things did i do while i was under the god protectors influence? Nona, you must tell me emplease/em! i want to know...i need to know what i was." the other dragon Nona, a pearly coat one of purest white save black markings around her ear plates and frontal paws, was hesitant. "well you just remember the part where you looked up and saw me didnt you?" receiving no response she continued "the part about how you teemed up to surprise attack me and said that you never wanted to convert me after all?" this time there was a mournful shameful sounding moan coming from nonas companion flying far enough away alongside her to not be glimpsed. so Nona related briefly all that she had heard and seen to her recently acquired ally. when she got to the part leading up she paused for breath. "and then what happened? you said i...threatend to kill you and rid this whole land of free night furys? it was my personal mission?" the other voice pressed urgently, needy. Nona nodded and opened her jaws again to continue her story. "yes and it went something like this..."/span/p  
p style="text-align: start; max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);".../span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"just a few moments ago he had heard a roar that sounded awful, like something had happened to his leader to make her roar that loudly even reaching the distance hed retreated to recover from another blasted dragons inflicted injury. "curse that foolish creature to have been born with wings." he flew toward the source of the fierce sound, having to press his ear plates to his head to prevent them bursting. "whats happening? are you okay?" he bellowed to be heard. what a sight greeted his eyes when he was close enough for his eyesight to penetrate the cloudy sky: a huge flash of lightning lighted up the sky and he gasped, his leader, the one he looked up to and bowed whenever she addressed him was coated with a slick layer of sweat as she flapped her wings slowly up and down with a life of their own, her head sagging limp against her chest. then he caught a glimpse of the other albino fury that had scratched him earlier and growled loud enough for her head to snap in the brutes direction. he was built like a tank and muscles all over but for all his self-imposed powerful looking intimidating appearance with a slash across one eye, his combat skills lacked severely; how he had even stayed alive against younger formerly free night furys in battle was beyond Nona. he was lose enough to hear what the other was saying by now. "did...did i r-really...d-deafeat s-silverwingthefury? all b-by myself?" he couldn't believe what was coming out of the dragonesses own jaws. what had happened to her to make her so defeated looking? "nightflight?" he called, naming the exhausted looking female the color of sky blue with white sprinkles like freshly fallen snow on her wings. he asked what was wrong. "i...could ask the same thing myelf...i...i...don't know where i am. where am i? im so exhausted." she realised she was fatigued and steadied her wing beats. "i feel so...weary. last thing i remember was...giving myself up for this white dragon, i-" she let out a startled sound from her jaws as she saw the dragon she was about to say its name flying not far away from her body. "strongyou! /strongNona? how? what? i don't understand whats g-going on" she stuttered. and then the brute who had been hovering nearby saw nightflight do something he hadn't seen before: she began cooing comfortingly to herself, murmuring unintelligible phrases under her breath, fretting. "oh dear oh dear...what have i emdone?/em"embr /em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the brute was growing increasingly suspicious of nightflight versels motives and edged a little closer to get a good look at her muzzle...and then he knew. he flared up at Nona across the distance. "you turned her against us?! that was the best of our kind, versel led us in a glorious path to enlightenment under the power of the god protector! how dare you! you somehow freed her of its mind link to her! now she will not be able to communicate with the rest of our kind that see the truth! by doing this you blind her. you're going to pay for this, pretty sweetheart! help me, our leader, help us and we will get you back on the right path once again." as he took off after Nona ready to savage her, nightflight hovered there tiredly, still coated with sweat, and suddenly made up her mind whose side she was on...suddenly she didn't emwant/em to look up at the stars anymore. nightlight curled her claws and un-curled them, studying them, lost in thought and a bit unsteady upon seeing they were covered with a large amount of lovely vermillion. she hovered there, thinking, pondering mulling thoughts and feelings over inside her. meanwhile Nona had to contend with the huge war mashine-on-wings barreling her way in revenge for what Nona had 'done' to nightflight. she had a few seconds on how to deal with this seething black mass before it crashed into her; driving the breath from her body and shoving her through the clouds at alarming speeds. a few moments later Nona felt a wing jarring jolt go through her as he slammed her hard into the spire of a rocky mountaintop pinnacle that loomed from the slate cloudscape. the impact was terrible! he then jabbed his claws down onto her muzzle, doing damage while emphasizing words with each claw thrust. "how strongdare/strong you try to turn her against strongus. everything/strong was just strongfine/stronguntil you showed up to ruin out conquest of this strongland./strong why is strongit/strong that you were the only one to remain free huh?" he shrugged off the blows nona tried prying him off with her back legs which were underneath the nasty black brutes vulnerable stomach./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"he used his strength to pick Nona clear of the rock, hover up on huge wings and hurl her clear off the rock he had pinned her to and into another not too far away. she cried out shrilly in pain as her albino body struck stone hard. he took off after with a nasty victorious smirk and continued his assults on her face. "strongthat's/strong for daring to oppose us in the first place! strongthat's/strong for hurting me" he slashed down one last time as hard as he could with those big cruel protruding claws from his paws, piercing nonas neck deeply to the bone, drawing vermillion. "and strongthat's/strong for all the pain i feel for what you just did to our once proud leader!" nonas struggles grew limper, even though she could have handled him with ease earlier she had been using most of her stamina to avoid death-by-nightflight and now was weakened further by this brutes continual assaults. he threw himself on top of a rapidly resisting dragon, and smiled sown onto her, saving for just a moment all the hatred for this creature that had been the cause of so much of nightflights trouble and the god protector. wordlessly he started building up the gas that would materialise in the back of his throat and burn Nona to oblivion."time to find a new place to sleep. goodnight troublemaker. sleep tight." then as the fireball was about to be unleashed he suddenly stiffened, a startled expression written all over his muzzle Nona could see. then his jaws promptly snapped shut and he swallowed his own fireball, pitching over and off his precarious perch to fall down into the gorge with an awful wailing howl. behind the place where the brutish fury that had just been about to end nona was a practically shivering, warbling, babbling crying nightflight; her claws red from her she had stuck him hard across his back to disable him. "i didn't mean to...but he...h-he was about to kill you. i couldnt-t allow him to...harm anothr fury. i think theres been enough of that aleady...i couldnt help it." still shaking miserably she glanced into nonas eyes still down on the rock where she had been hurled to."did i do the right thing? i used to be so calmly collected without fear. what am i now?" Nona didnt know what she could possibly say to a creature so utterly lost and confused./span/p  
p style="text-align: start; max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);".../span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the other voice of nightflight loaw shar versel, now just nightflight, was silent for a very long time as she and Nona flew away from the mountain range. Nona bided her patience as much as she could until she was fit to burst "well?" there was more silence. "its..intresting. how and who i used to be, the evil thing i was as my time as versel and now the new me" said her voice thoughtfully, its owner quietly sifting through what she had just been told. "but now that im me again...whats next? what is my destiny now that i have been set free of those moral chains that bound me? what shall i become? what paths lay before me? where do they lead? too many questions and far too few answers for my apparent liking." Nona could only imagine what dark thoughts must have scuttled across nightflights mind right now. so lost and confused as a newborn puppy opening its eyes for the first time. in many ways that was entirely true of her now; being told that what she had been was unjust and terrible. what must it have been like to be under the influential trance of the god protector? Nona really didnt want to find out and now that she had freed nightflight she hoped others would soon follow in her path. her words had broken through the fog she had been seduced on that day when she had given her freedom to bide Nona more time to do what need to be done. she startled as nightflight uttered something too quiet to hear. "what was that?" she repeated it louder in a far darker tone than Nona expected it to be uttered "i said, and what does this silverwingthefury have in store me when he finds out i am no longer under his control? i am...i was...nightflight versel."/span/p 


	9. Truth will be told

west: out west lay many things to the two dart like shapes appearing to float in the air. out west were the forest and the flatlands of this known existence. to some it also was a place of human inhabitants who, being the angry barbarians as they were, these airy creatures tended to leave them alone. formerly ignored: after the creatures were forced to turn their heads to the sky and become twisted of mind body and heart, given new purpose, markings and duty. west was also where the giant ball of firelight descended in the evenings, blinding the two dark slits in the sky from seeing the figure silently shadowing their flight, the sun blinding the westbound duo flying into it from him. he was efficiently camouflaged and he would only reveal himself to these two of his kind when he was ready, one would pay dearly for interfering. as for the other...when he found out what in the name of his god protector what _she_ was doing flying alongside one she had sworn to eradicate, he would know the reason for his need to pursue them. "it just doesn't make any sense...what is she doing with her? i remember all the times that creature she became obsessive over will perish and all along she endeavoured to bring about an end to the likes of us. why? after all that they have done." he knew the duo heading west of course; one the last free dragon to be free of the overall path to truth, the only one to not know what it felt like to have the sky's delightful delicious power flowing inside of you; Nona, the other was none other than nightflight loaw shar versel who was flying alongside her. to the flyer in question it was like the sea making friends with the desert: they didn't mix. "how is this possible? i just don't understand it." with those confusing thoughts in mind the night fury known in full title as Abydos loaw persvek wer whedab, one of the very first furys to be converted after his leader, took off faster after the other night furys, wondering what this was all about.

* * *

the battle was finally won! "well, kind of" thought young night fury obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss, watching the fleeing backs of sktiiva loaw ranak branarr and the supreme leader of the root of this evil: loaw okar kahuakhaun. they had won the battle, her and her odd choice of companions, a young dark toned skinned female viking girl. between her and the girl childs exceptional skills with a blade had done significant damage to a force equally matched but greater power than they. they had escaped to live another day of course, they always did and obuekhov had no doubt she would meet them again soon. now she must tend to the wounded boy who the dragon had surmised must belong with this girl. but her thoughts were straying to earlier and what it must have been like for her to have nearly been killed by kahuakhaun. "silverwingthefury" she corrected herself. that's what his name had been before being corrupted by the sky and what they called their god protector. she snapped to attention again as she saw the human eying her wearily, and obuekhov arytiss knew to not make any sudden movements just concentrated on breathing steadily and give the human less of a threatening appearance. she wasnt about to end this human like the others, maybe she might have once long ago when the transfiguration process had been fresher and the pain blotting out rationality. "i wont so much as move toward her. i don't need another dead fury, although i could slay this flesh and blood with some difficulty." Ixora Jackson, the 'hammer of justice' for her part was confused by this whole ordeal: one moment she was telling blueflame that she was done with his silly antics and than she's no sooner doing that than storming back through the foliage, mouthing curses about his stupidity about wandering this forest alone where something could hurt him. as it turned out several _something elses_ had indeed located him. sktitiiva branarr had nearly killed him if it weren't for the timely appearance of a night fury of muddy brown scales to rush out of the treeline and push her off him. it had been a tough battle, Ixora took the hint somehow and realised this creature was on her side and fought ranak branarr while obuekhov faced kahuakhaun. loaw okar had seen this battle as a draw and yanked a hissing, struggling, defiant branarr after her to fight another day.

"no i say we finish them off **now** because you are quite tactless in fights. look how well nightflight versel handled you: practically kneeled down and licked her paws for forgiveness. disgusting! need i say more?" she became very pleased to see for the first time her leader flush with tapered irritation, a hit at last. "stick around any longer and there wont be much left of us. learn to choose your battles; and you live. stay? i wont stop you, it's not my concern when evakyl arytiss guts you, and she takes your place by my side. in some aspects she has potential you lack. and you are after all...a veteran fighter aren't you? silenced many a resisting free fury without any incident at all hm?" he let out a thin smile as she scowled back. she paced faster ahead of loaw okar to not have to see that infuriating smugness he always aired. "everyone _knows_ that isn't true. i fought my share, i fought my way to a high position in the ranks of the god protectors approval. and yet you seem to think that i would be beaten by someone such as her? no one can match my savagery. no one! we follow your rule! the trouble is your confession to letting versel go." she heard silence, an unusual trait for loaw okars usually prideful nature. "she was...a worthy opponent who was mine to tease. when i wanted to finish what i began; i would do so." even sktitiiva knew a lie when she saw one, rather primitive as she was at cunning ideas. she raised her frills/ear plates and laughed uproaringlysly. "we both know that is not what happened. you let. her. go. we know that! deep down you know that too. if you're not carefull" branarr said in a very unusual moment of complete seriousness with a hint of warning "someone like versel could be the end of you from within our followers. given how cunning and tactful she is, looking at the stars has not diminished that sly gleam in her eyes or the way her body flows as she fights battles for you. she may have seen the truth but there's that possibility she will foster unrest with your direction you take our followers toward. watch your back, you may find a claw in it someday, kahuakhaun." she lifted off on ragged wings without waiting for a reply from her leader. she need not have bothered, for once expressing his slight worry that she might be right, he had no reply to give.

back in the clearing Ixora eyed the brown creature steadily: waiting to see whether the night fury that had saved her would now want her for itself and make a move. in Ixoras experience someone only saved your hide if they wanted a thing in return. so she waited...and wait...and wait...the fury just breathed steadily through her nasal passages, eying the human equally mirroring her skepticism, making no attempt to shift postures. she stared at Ixora with soft watchful kind eyes, Ixora returning the skeptical look. when the creature still didn't move she threw up her hands in frustration and tossed her axe head to the grass. "fine! what? what is it about me? speak or moan or whatever you do! just stop staring at me like that! it's creeping me out." a voice did answer her but it wasnt obuekhov. "it wants to hep you. see? these creatures are harmless once they are calmed. i think it means that it wants you to grasp this ones not opposing is ixxy" all heads whipped around in surprise to see the voice had come from a battered and bruised blueflame trying to rise to hs feet but falling back with a pained sigh. seeing this the brown colored dragon padded over and began licking the boys bloody wounds, much to blueflames disgusted surprise. "ugh stop. you're getting me all wet. stop. stop it. please." he himself stopped when he noticed through the spit that the four claw gash on his left arm near the elbow was beginning to quickly knit together as if never having received the wound. he looked on in surprise as Ixora glanced away with a muffled "ugh" as his pain ebbed away. "nert furt...drool? it must have healing properties i didn't know. you beasts are amazing!"he reached out a tentative hand to rub the dragon's head gratefully. he turned back to see Ixora facing away from him looking at the sky and now suddenly his healer night fury had also arched her ear plates to the sky as well. "whats going on?" then he saw the answer coming toward them or rather two answers.

* * *

they had discussed this over before they flew westward: find obuekhov arytiss and the others if they were still alive and join up forces to complete the picture. "now remember, i need you to be careful with them, they are fragile. they might hurt you." nonas companion was unlike what she used to be, former fighter and renowned fighter for the god protector. she had done many many things of unspeakable nature that Nona didn't even want to delve into; the past was past and now it was time to move on from it and bury it. but if anything, the sky blue fury next to her was like an entirely different night fury from what she had been; jittery, nervous, a total warbling wreck. she held her claws close to her chest and begged an end to this. "i remember i remember." former loaw shar versel said softly. "nightflight. my name is nightflight." Nona heard the dragon next to her mutter bravely to herself. they descended from the clouds and blinked against the blinding ball of fires decent in the heavens, tingeing all around an amber tint. Nona pointed out the shapes of a large lizard and two humans in a clearing, almost just where she last recalled obuekhov had been seen heading off to. they angled down to land in the clearing of beings. after introducing themselves with unintelligible growls and coos to the humans, it was the boy slowly groaning with recognition as he sat up, leaning against the tree, that he sighed. "i know that one. i remember you." the elegant shapely Dragon fluttered her wings shamefully at the humans weary accusing tone. "yes, you knew me then as nightflight versel; yes im responsible for all of _this._ i know i am responsible for all these commitments of violence i have done and the unwilling night furys i killed. but i have risen anew...and if you could hear me...then im...sorry for what i did to you and the girl. i was...not myself then." she clearly was uncomfortable. "i ask for our forgiveness in that matter that is all. i could never repay the things i did, there is no need to ask more of you." she turned her back abruptly and took to her wings away north.

obuekhov was about to call her back when she was stopped by a look from Nona telling her that would not be wise. "there will be time for that later. let her go for now she will let us find her and help when she wants our comfort, not before. i managed to free her from the spell the sky had on her: the trance is broken now." her companion took in all those lacerations, the scratches across her face and ger blacked pelt of white. "almost at the cost of your own life? you should have let me help but you wouldn't let me! what did she do to you out there?"making sure Ixora was tending to the male teenager two-legged Nona padded closer and faced the former converted dragon. "listen, there wasnt one there was two attackers they planned this i wasnt cautious enough nightflight planned a trap for me, said she and the huge behemoth next to her were tracking me down to distract me. she revealed that i **wasnt** to become a follower she wanted to kill me after all. i hadn't suspected this turn of events. my only choice was let her think she had me in her claws so that's what i ended up having to do. maybe not the best scenario but i ended up alive and better yet nightflight is on our side. we don't have to worry about her anymore. what about you? what happened to you?" arytiss simply nodded toward the human duo off to the side battered looking an exhausted. "this happened. look at what war with our own kind has done to ourselves, furthermore the humans are getting caught up on our own blood lust of the stars will. it all has to stop. if what ou say has really come true and it isn't some clever trick of that dragoness than silverwingthefury has just lost his most powerful tool over his followers. it would be a blow to him if he fund out." she flattened her ear plates. "he escaped: silverwing. he along with one of the worst of the furys i used to know, loaw ranak branarr, were about to kill that human and i and the human you see over there fought them and like the coward he is he took branarr with him and slipped away."

the flesh and bloods were rising to their feet shakily, readying themselves for whatever came next. as it tuned out Nona had thought that all through after they had flown west into the setting sun, nightflight and her, she would collect her newest freed ally and set off after kahuakhaun, leader of the entire movement. "don't you see? if he falls it will be like a toppling effect for all the rest to lose heart and be easier to be snapped out of the god protectors influence. that feeling in their bodies will be gone, though i havent felt it. what is it like? nightflight has felt it; you have felt it." obuekhov shook her head sadly "i do not wish to reflect on it, if you don't mind. its painful enough already thinking about it and its something felt in me yes but its uncomfortable to bring the topic you would like to know what it felt but do not wish to venture there any longer. what i was...i wont dwell on my past. we have bigger menaces such as what to do with the humans and what about the larger problems of silverwingthefury?" meanwhile while the two dragons debated Ixora and blueflame were trying to head back the way south without attracting too much notice of the night furys. they had almost succeeded in avoiding attention when Nona heard movement and whipped her head in their direction first with alertness then curiosity once she registered them. blueflame could clearly read the intention written all over the almost magical beasts muzzle 'where are you heading off to so soon?' the two hesitated. "i don't think they want us leaving, their expressions look quizzical though not hostile. ixxy you think we should stay?" she sighed. "look, john, _you _can certainly stick around to play with your apparent harmless friends but im heading back to the village. i only came back ot lf an urge that you had a falling out with trouble. must you go looking for it?" blueflame turned to the two night furys standing looking at them silently. "i sense these are friends. hey who knows they might help us convince the rest of your bloodthirsty town that they might fish with is and double your catch." Ixora muttered something and grabbed her axe and left they way she came. blueflame turned back to the dragons watching him still and offered a goofy smile. "well i guess it's just us then eh? what do you want to do?"

* * *

as it turned out that answer wasnt long in coming, at least to the shadowy form that had followed the shape and pelt patterned night fury flying northwest by her self, all alone. "nightflight versel, whatever are you doing out here, so far away from home?" said the cautious owner of the voice. abydos loaw persevek wer whedab wondered what she was doing, after seeing her land in the clearing with two other dragons and surprisingly filthy two legged. "what are you up to?" then she had flown off to her present course, and though he was far enough away to not be detected while still being able to track her flight, he couldn't understand nor hear what she was saying aloud. alone...why? usually she took percautions of being seen that was her dudadvantage: her color of hide she was born with was easilly distinguishable. but he knew where she was going and he was sure loaw okar would be puzzled by it.

sure enough he and ranak branar were a little ways to nightflights approaching position. he and skitiiva were perched on the rocky outcrop, it was the dawn of twilight hour, the time soon when the moon would be strongest. the time when he would rally the masses of converted night furys streaming in from different parts of the land to listen to what he was about to say. all he needed was that one dragoness of his followers to arrive soon, kahuakhaun wasnt known for his patience in the least. "someone find her and bring her to me!" he shouted into the night furys streaming in to land on the stony tundra before his pillar. "looking for me, silverwingthefury? i thought you preferred to have had better sentries than these two you call loyal followers. they let me right in. why?" the voice was silky, a bit trembly if one listened closely enough, but filled with a heated undercurrent of challenge. kahuakhaun swiveled on his haunches and saw beautiful elegant nightflight struggling to hold two more heavily built night fuys by their necks in eatch paw before tossing them to the ground in a winged heap on the ground. his posture of instinctive killing eased when he saw it was only her. "why if it isn't loaw shar vesel. have trouble with killing the two humans after freeing yourself from that tree obuekhov told me you were pinned under?" his nature of good self confidence faded slightly as nightflight flew leisurely closer to hover in front of him and branarr, who curled her lower jaw like she smelled something nasty. "no, not that name, not anymore...you see ive been...altered. changed for the better." loaw okar stiffened then, his orbs going slit in an instant as it suddenly awakened that slight fear in him again that...just maybe..."what are you saying?" he growled thinly, for once becoming uneasy again like he had long long ago. "im saying its over. simple, really...the sky no longer controls my body or actions. and im also saying" said nightflight, flexing her claws and ruffling her wings an arrogantly, padding close to branarr and kahuakhaun. "you are no longer my leader. my name is nightflight."


	10. All my Sins remembere'd

once again they faced each other on the battlefield of stone, with the same crowd puzzled and growing ever more confused to the goings on transpiring before them. once again, there were two forces opposing the others views. once again, the battle would be fought of two creatures whose glint in their respective orbs told the other this would be a battle to the end. "its time! only one can live...and survive, that will be me. for all that power, for all that time as something different that what i was really ment to be, Nona has shown me my true destiny" said one of the combatants, voice silk, smooth, a hint of confidence, but a voice laden with steel. "and uncorchanately for the rest of my lifetime it doesn't include you." the voice that had spoken was a female dragoness, shapely, beautiful in appearance, a striking gift from the heavens above to stun other night furys, a blend of mottled white spots on/under her wings and white stomach, those markings streaming away from her eyes a lovely sight. that is, if she wasnt glaring at you. her opponent was more stocky in build, more a powerhouse type of night fury than anything else, gray and black banding spreading the length of his forepaws and eyes, a stomach as blue as the river. he was still trying to grasp what had happened and his fear was rising. "whats going on?" the dragoness formerly referred to as nightflight loaw shar versel shot a look over to another ebon colored dragoness a short distance away, returning nightflights gaze with a glower. "i think your peasant deputy can explain that, can't you? i have been told that you once answered to me." skitiiva loaw ranak branarr bristled angrily at the jibe but obediently turned to nightflights opponent, loaw okar kahuakhaun, formerly known as silverwingthefury with something close to a frightening grin. "she may be an overly smart killer and throrugh annoyance, but since you're a bit vague on the uptake, allow me: what she's saying is she's no longer under the moons controlling influence. she's been...blinded, kahuakhaun. and nona was the disgraceful last free dragon to make that happen. think of it this way, what you once tried to make her one of us failed." her toothy grin (her teeth were extended in her gums) grew nasty. "now your only choice left? to kill her. be the leader we all know you to be! there can't be two of you...can there. heheheh!" loaw okar circled nightflight, looking for a weakness or opening in that creatures guard. though there didn't seem to be any. "don't bother," she chortled merrily, tauntingly. "you let me flee. there are no weaknesses; nona tells me you trained me after giving myself up to buy her more time. i am here for one thing and one thing only; the destruction of your tattered carcass on my paws. one final death. there will be no escaping me. i wont let you leave alive."

he composed himself finally; after all he was a veteran fighter, had honed his skills the world over for a fight, who knew it would be against her. he turned back to the dragoness with his usual flair of boldness. "if you will not submit...you will perish, just like all the rest of your batch of brothers and sisters." he paced around her alertly as he smiled coldly. "they _all_ were slaughtered...eatch and every one and very few were made followers under my claw. pity, nightflight, that all your kin refused to submit that day. none of our future conquests included a nest of nert furts that size after that. our followers were forced to kill every last one, i spared you when you came to me asking what this was about. i _saved_ your hide, purely out of spite, so one day i could train your mind to my vision and brain. it seems i should have simply not bothered with the effort of converting our best role model for other night furys at all. it would simply have been easier to raze you to the ground like the treacherous worm you really have become. i have improved my skills massively, nightflight. are you really willing to risk it? my fighting skills? you might not...be in one piece when this is all over and done. want to back out?" he launched forward suddenly, hoping to throw her guard off with rushing her, but she easily slipped out of reach. "oops! too late! im going to finish what i began, versel: the entire extinction of that batch of night furys including you, and then i will use my vast resources to track Nona and kill her too; a job i remember you failed miserably at. look where you are now. a weak pet of those still free." she fluttered out-of-the-way in time and teasingly clasped the nearest nert furt that had been watching the spectacle and threw him full length into the path of kahuakhauns fireball that had been aimed at her, hitting the spectator instead and dropping him with a grunt. loaw okar growled with mild irritation, leaped over the dazed form of the 'roadblock' follower in his way and readied another alkaline lavender blast to launch slightly above her. but she must have been expecting something like that, barel rolling lazily to the left to let the flaming projectile pass. "you see, i don't belive in playing fairly: history and my time as one of your converted fools has taught me this. i fight dirty!" she landed on her paws fancifully and swiped at his muzzle, seeing him back up effortlessly she managed to clip his left folded wing in her own fireball. "and I simply don't believe in playing" kahuakhaun retorted testily, shaking off the blow.

off to the side ranak branarr had finally made up her mind that she was done sitting uselessly observing while she watched what was certain to be a death sentence for loaw okar. she snarled impatiently as nightflight struck hard at his wings intent on disabling his ability to fly. loaw branarr knew from battling herself was that if your wings were shredded you were a goner. she hopped off the pillar shed been sitting on and snuck around the throng of watching winged dragons clamoring like children to see the battle waging on. if she could sneak to nightflights rear area blindside, she might have a chance. "heheeh; over before it even begins" she chuckled facetiously. slipping to her right she attempted to squeeze through the forms around her, finding she couldn't she cursed aloud and shoved her way roughly into the massed furys. she smiled triumphantly already imagining versels unsuspecting attitude and her pleasing cries of mercy when ranak branarr ripped her wings off. sneaking up behind the beautiful slender dragon, claws at the ready to rip and tear, so confidant in her sneak attack that she didn't see the hind legs of her intended target moving like lightning, wicked claws gleaming. she reared back in terrible pain, the wingjoints of her right and her muzzle badly bloodied. she howled, flapping that one wing uselessly, testing to see if it worked, realising the truth with horrer..."yes you will never be able to fly again" said a smug nightflight, finally turning back to look to see who she had wounded; skitiiva realised though her haze of pain that nightflight hadn't even **looked back to see that someone was trying to attack her**. "ah yes, another would-be upsurper. too bad that i have to teach novices a lesson every time. you cannot attack me with my own abilities, who's far surpass yours. i do not know you personally that i remember but it does not matter much. you have dared to test me, now pay the price." she pounced again extremely fast, whipping her tail hard enough to knock branarr flat on her back (not always a good position) a ways into the crowd watching, getting tangled in their wings. seeing she had throughly dispatched skitiiva for the moment she turned back to grapple with loaw okar. getting to her paws, even though that was a task itself, and the haze of pain was great, the dragon smiled to herself...even though many other beings were skeptical of her and the throbbing wounds were not helping...she hadnt thought a way could be found...now she knew of a way to defeat nightflight.

* * *

niiightfliiight where are youuuuuu?" called the alternating voices of two dragons combing the forestscape for the creature they knew in their hearts wouldn't be there or if she was she wouldnt want to be found. on one of the dragons backs was a teenager of middle years, male curly-haired human viking with an inquisitive appetite to just _h_ow he had decided getting on the back of a night fury, one of wich had tried kill him in the first place. "make that three, is like all creatures are out to get me but these pair. why i have no idea. must be my bad looks that make me a dead boy." the boy's name was blueflame and he had a comerade that had saved his life...twice...before desiding the life of constant -death-in-the-face adrenaline wasnt for her so she had departed and hadn't come back yet. these creatures had helped him and somehow he was climbing onto the back of the albino colored nert furt and taking off with the other of muddy hide. "so, uh, where are we heading to exactly? any particular place? because i have to head home soon my village will miss me...its been three days since i trained with Vicky and ug-penguin, i think someone will be missing me by now." he got a quiet growl from hos mount indicating some sort of reassurance that it was fine. blueflame sighed and lay back to enjoy the ride to wherever they desided to fly toward. "northwest i saw her take off to. we should head that way." said the brown fury, obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss to the albino fury whos coat was blacked and marred. that had to do with a nasty clash with the dragon they were heading after when she had been...somene other possessed entity. nightflight loaw shar versel had been corrupted one time when she came to obuekhov one time in her failure to find Nona she had asked to be taken to kahuakhaun as a sacrifice to satisfy loaw okars immediate desire of oppressing one of his most daunting advicarys. that had in turn made obuekhov more than ever to fight back and find Nona who she was certain was hiding, striking where she could at the god protectirs followers. but instead of killing her when nightflight had tasked her, since previous assassins had failed to end nonas existance silently without incident, she allied with her to bring down the tranced seduced night furys from within. it had been rough with the abounding activities of several night furys including numerous encounters with Audria loaw edi essum and Oupyiki loaw thurkear wiivai (meaning neat night fury). the most powerful and brazen of them all was none other than loaw shar versel: the fall of nightflight had been the point obuekhov and nona had been hoping for, surely it would be felt by kahuakhaun when news reached him.

noting the prone form of blueflame obuekhov barked something to Nona who heard and shifted herself to become more comfortable with the human on her back. "what should we do about the human child? it cannot possibly come along on our mission. even though as you say nightflight is no longer a menace i don't know what to do about him. so brave that two-legged has been." commented arytiss. nona flicked her head suitably toward blueflame on her back resting. "its best to just take him with us. we can watch over him and the female should she return to find him. its time to track nightflight and topple kahuakhaun. i have beyond a doubt that he will not be able to be broken and will just have to defeat him. there's little more we can do. he must be stopped at all costs, he cannot be allowed to continue to forcibly recruit more night furys. its stops here. our quarry might even be able to help us." they traced the direction the dragoness had disappeared to, unknowingly taking the same way abydos loaw persevek wer whedab had also flown. they scanned for any sign of her presence even though knowing full well unlike other night furys she was a master of camouflage in noise cancellation. blueflame moaned and rolled over to be more comfortable on nonas back. "rock, rock, rock, rock, black blotch, rock, rock. wait what?" he looked harder amid the pillars of rock rising like gigantic stalagmites from the ground in some mammoth cave with the endless skies above its fathomless roof. nether his mount nor the brown scaled dragoness flying beside her had seemed to notice it so he tapped on the albino furys head to get her attention. but nona was a night fury that had been bourne of war and acute awareness from being sought out with 'the others' sent out by nightflight to kill her. she had already seen it flitting. "obuekhov, company." she said quietly enough so that her partner could hear. "where?" she asked in worry. "i don't like this place one bit there's too many places to hide. i don't like it one bit." Nona hushed her. "keep on to bait the attacker; i will take the boy and myself out behind where im guessing it's stalking us to flush the creature out. looks like one of loaw okars followers, weak one by the looks of its sloppy ability to keep itself concealed. it might even know where nightflight has gone, our lives depend on the answer. then maybe well get somewhere."

* * *

"no you're not going anywhere" growled leader kahuakhaun as he flapped his wings above a patently sitting nightflight below him. "i let you escape once because i deemed you a worthy opponent to challenge on my own terms. i see i made a mistake on that: killing you would have led to the capture and conversion of nona whom i now know you bought time for that much sooner." nightflight made no move to chase after him to the skies, just angled that lovely elegant head up at him in the illusion of thinking. "honestly do you think i _plan_ on leaving this place this twilight hour? i have no qualms of turning my back on you, i might have done that once when i was more naive, but no longer! i am where i am ment to be. you know what i cal those skin and bone membranes keeping you aloft in the air? a target!" she casually pumped two fireballs from within her toward kahuakhauns wings, finding their marks despite efforts to evade. "i had forgotten how good i was at practice sessions" she smirked. "you want to come and defeat me? come get me; im right here, versel." loaw okar taunted after shrugging off the blows. he rolled 360 degrees with ease of her volley of flaming shots sailed past. the rest of the crowd had gathered to watch the battle with a respective birth to allow the combatants to brawl. none of them quite knew what was happening but all knew this was a skirmish of sorts and dragons lived for battle as well as peace. ranak branarr grimaced as her wing flared with bloody pain from rolling over upright, but she still smiled victoriously to herself. "at last i know of a weakness that evidently the great dragoness herself doesnt recon she has. im smarter than i thought i was." she thought of a way to get to loaw okar still hovering airborne taunting the disinterested looking nightflight. "are you done?" she opened those jaws of hers wide in what could be described in almost a cute yawn. "come down and fight claw to fire. i don't need to say more. ive learned from many a combat with lesser trained dragons that its best you come to me." branarr knew more than to attempt a second sneak attack from that dragonesess supposed blindside, probably had her eyes trained discreetly on her even now, knowing her location even as she faced away from her. she padded around the circle of spectators to kahuakhauns side and broke through the night fury ring to tell him nightflights weakness. but before she could he wheeled around and glared at her with such vehement pure hatred blazing in his orbs like branarr had never seen that she actually flinched. "DO NOT INTERFERE! THIS IS OUR BATTLE! ETHER I WIN OR SHE DOES!" he closed his wings and shot toward nighgtfliht waiting patiently on the ground fir him. "SHE WILL NOT WIN!"

what occurred next was something quite unlike skitiiva had ever glimpsed seeing her leader do: he fell upon nightflight savagely like a wild animal, ripping & tearing, not caring for his own injuries, twice nearly having his vulnerable blue neck slit wide open. "you will not win!" he roared, going into a full berserk instinctive rage. she was pressed hard into defending her own life, dodging all kinds of foused swipes and lunges and fireballs like which the pretty dragon had never had to endure before. kahuakhaun fought and fought and fought harder and harder, inflicting increasing damage to her body. "you have wounded me, dared to defy me; to place your petty rebellion against my supreme will! now let it be your death!" nightflight dodged a killing strike from loaw okars paws at her eyes, flowing her body elusively through a pounce, flattened her tummy to the ground as he sailed over her to crush her beneath him. "you think because you're exclusively finesse in your evasions that you can put a stop to me!" he fought even harder to kill her, and after a successive amount of tries one shift of her hindquarters and tail body didn't **quite** follow the rest of her propelled front end quick enough to stop his bloodlust raging hindclaws to pierce her left hind leg below the right-wing in a heavily bloody spray. she shrieked with pain as that limb promptly collapsed under her, oozing vermillion quickly. kahakhaun felt no pity, slashing mercilessly across her vulnerable muzzle down the side to her neck, followed up by his claws biting deeply down her opened right eye. nightflight fell onto her stomach, sprawled there breathing heavily, as skitiiva branarr smiled evilly from the shadows. "well done well done. i...didnt think it could be done. you have surpassed yourself my leader. she's finally been brought down. don't celebrate until shes her, kill her now before she recovers stamina." she said to herself maliciously. kahkakhan brought his body around to savagely tail slap nightflight onto her side, where her white stomach was streaked with blood from the many injuries she had not sustained until this battle. he landed, looming over her shuddering gasping form, grinning not as he usually did with smug cold calculation, but a white-hot burning overwhelming evil rage of an animal that had won and now was about to cruelly end its prey without remorse. he didn't speak, just dug his bloodied front paws into her abdomen without feeling any of his usual emotions. just the pure, precise desire to kill and kill and kill. "end it, this one hasssssss failed our cause. take her life away." hissed the god protectors voice into silverwingthefuys clouded mind. the clearing of night furys resounded out with a sound uttered from a throat never to have heard it before and would probably never hear again as loaw okar drove his claws into his victims stomach again. nightflight, dragon formerly a seduced follower to the enticing stars above, renowned fighter and now helpless victim to the leader of the night fury corruption, reacted in the way only pain can bring you: nightflight screamed.

...TO BE CONTINUED...


	11. Ones downfall changes hearts

p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"it was a gray cludy-forboding-threataning-rain kind of day out in these howling mountains, these windswept peaks. thunder crackled ominously from the pinnacles stabbing themselves into the cloudscape, dousing thereafter a torrential rainstorm onto the ground far below. it slammed unerringly into the ground with a horrendous roar to those poor domestic insects that fled wildly to their hiding places that inhabited this terrain. it also fell on what appeared to be the black form of something indistinguishable colored from the rock surrounding it, waking it up rudely. one crimson red reptilian eye opened in an otherwise black muzzle. SNAP! went the other eye to survey the surroundings! it stretched its limbs in what now could be seen as heavily muscled ebon wings to their widest extent to see if they worked properly. it muttered unintelligibly to itself from its time of vocal cord disuse. it took a step forward and cursed aloud as it felt pain lance up the middle of its back. ah yes, the wound. the wound emshe,/em the one strong-willed hope to creatures such as this night fury here, had been looked up to with the uppermost alliance and respect. nightflight loaw shar versel may have been a very rebellious disobedient additudeal one who strongly preferred things her way 'or else' she had been a sub leader of sorts in the leaders absence. the while thing started with loaw okar kahuakhaun, some of the free hiding dragons left still knew him widely as silverwingthefury before he had looked up into the sky. that had been his downfall in the end, hatred and irrefutable anger was fueled by the omnipresent entity the converted night furys called their god protector. given a false duty and lust for the powerful blood lust that tingled on his retracted teeth he had set out and had all the weak 'nert furts' killed before the eyes of those left over relilliant-minded furys spared the bloodshed. in his fit over nightfights infuriating superiority to combat him in single battle she had won. letting her go had not diminished the avid lust to see her become a follower under his claw, the perfect opportunity presented itself to him. another, obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss "delivered" nightflight into the hands of loaw okar without much problem. that was also the reason why, grunting painfully, rising from the spot where nightflight had slashed open his back to proptect the prey he had been about to end with a fireball, he vowed with his last breaths, the brute was strongnot/strong dead, strongnot/strong not gone, strongnot/strong defeated. he was too bruised to fly, but he vowed she would pay with every last ounce of breath in his body for this betrayal. pay...and pay...and pay.../span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"the voice of nightflight at high decibel, practically the best fighter there ever had been yet assimilated so far, couldn't exactly be described as heartwarming in the slightest: the sound of the great dragoness screaming! there was a reason for this agonizing pain and resulting yell of course, it had a name and was at the moment digging his long switch blade like claws deep into versels exposed white undertummy. yes maybe there had been a time when kahuakhaun, supreme leader of the movement to slay all the dissenter dragons and seduce the strong-minded, would have bragged or threatened but that was beyond him now. now? now when one in the circle of observant night fury followers looked it swiftly could be said instinctive feral murderous rage consumed him entirely. there were no longer any yells or taunts to his enemy whose soul had been twisted and now was about to be dead by his deed anyway. no, now there was only the pure precise desire to rend everyone and everything that caught his eye after he was finished with her. perhaps if he hasn't collapsed to the white-hot desire that blocked out rationality and reason he would have realised that he was ending the one thing, aemmythical slender beautiful creature/em, maybe he might have thought twice about what he was actually about to do. after all he had schemed to bend her will and that had succeeded without incident. but nightflights unerring return and the taunts of another night fury off to the sidelines, a nasty rasping voiced ragged looking female (skitiiva loaw ranak branarr) had driven loaw okar into a place where his ravaged mind no longer responded to rationality. the nervous furys watching the death of nightflight this day wondered if he would ever be the same after this, or would he lose himself to this viler darker hatred. embr /em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"loaw okar had a moment of thought as he ran his blades into his helpless nemeses trapped under his bodyweight. she convulsed piteously in his grip and through the screams she cried out words. and when she spoke it was filled with so much longing and yearning to be free (it would have striked the heart), maybe free of this bondage at last, that she would have at last given to one that had freed nightflight herself, credit where credit was due. that maybe though all this battle she had learned a thing or two with evil, it would make you or break you. "fine, you win this battle. you win." she croaked, writhing her body feebly in a weak attempt to slip out like she was very good at of kahuakhauns grip. "i don't want you to keep me alive. just end me now. that way i will have owed Nona the fate she spared me of, the dept i will have returned in full to a fellow flyer i considered" her struggles grew limp abruptly, her words a gag. "a...friend." as she grew eerily completely still there was the rustle of wings overhead and loaw ranak branarr smiled to herself to see a lone single night fury tuck his wings in to land on the ground inside the now silent ring of watching dragons surrounding the battlefield. "why the late arrival? you didn't see her death did you. hhehehee HAHAAHAA!" branarr cackled gleefully. "im not surprised. who are you anyway?" the dragon in question wasnt one skitiiva recognized among the many muzzles she knew of but she didnt have to wait for the answer long. he paced forward and introduced himself stiffly to her, unabashed by her nasty demeanor. "the name is loaw persvek wer whedab, i think my name used to be Abydos but i cannot recall if that's true. i have been tracking the one you all know as loaw versel." he looked wildly around and then his orbs fell upon the sky blue wings with the very familiar speckled dots of white peeking out underneath the huge form of the night fury leader stepping off of her. when his eyes searched her chest cavity area, noting she wasnt breathing, something happened to him then. "it's happening. kill him now." the thought-speak projected itself into the nearest night furys minds like commands written in stone from the stars overhead. it came from the god protector./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"they didn't think, they acted; racing dutifully to forever silence one of their own kind. but it was already too late for anyone to stop what was about to transpire. he suddenly stiffened, eyes going slit-thin in an instant. he reared back that great black and yellow head and roared loudly but whether that was from agony or something else no one could guess. they were too busy stopping, staring at the spectacle going on in front of their eyes, even loaw okar growled softly in reply: skitiiva branarr simply glowered defiantly, she knew what was happening. "fools. you stupid stupid fools. you should have killed versel sooner, but i guess like her that name no longer fits her, as it will no longer suit emhim /emether. you should have learned your lessons. you can be blinded faster than you can imagine." he roared for a long time, even rearing up slightly. then his markings...changed physically on him. when it was over he had reverted to what he once had been before loaw okar had forced him to gaze up into the sky and lose his mind to another's will. the god protectors thought speak screamed piercingly into the nearest night furys minds, making them moan aloud, including branarr. his body markings had shifted on him as well. when he raised his head at last to look the feral induced kahuakhaun in the eyes it sent an actual shiver though ranak branarr off to loaw persveks right. "my name is Abydos. you! you traitor, have made me like this. you emlied/emand emkilled/em and emmurdered /emthe one i loved, you devil creature! now i will show you how it feels to be dealt with a soul bent on making sure she is avenged!" hos eyes grew steely beyond what had been seen on this twilight hour. "i will see to it you are in tatters when im through with you. YOU KILLED HER! YOU MURDERER!" he strode into the battle, half flapping his wings to cover more distance, not even looking down at the possibly very dead form of an elegant smooth schemer dragoness, even as she had been seduced after his passing assimilation, he had had feelings for nightflight. it was up to him alone to ensure nightflight would always remain inside his newly purified heart./span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"here he was, the lone male human on this quest, being carried around on some 'nert furt' that looked like it had landed in an acid pool and bleached itself of all its true color. the boy viking in his teen years was pretty sure his mount he was at the moment lunging stealthily on the back of was a female. its growls sounded as such. "lucky me i seem to be in for a hay ride of fun today." he grumbled good-naturedly. unlike other teenagers his age like those in his village back whose how many miles south from this mountainous wasteland, he was never one to take things seriously. he had an air of cheekines about him that had driven his comrade Ixora Jackson of a far more fierce nature out on a stroll and because of that they, he, had been nearly been killed. "the thing about big islands like ours there's lots of forest and not enough parental vikings to hear you scream." he though ruefully, hanging on to the all albino fury as she plunged in and out of rock pillars to keep the black shaped shadow in sight. bored blueflame has begun counting rock spires as his mount flew with her partner of a not very attractive brown pelt, growling and cooing to eatchother in some sort of dragon speech wich he couldn't fathom comprehending. blueflame had been the very first to see the mysterious airy presence in the air that he didn't remember being any part of their little band add-ons to join them. even though he doubted the two nert furts' could actually understand him (they could blueflame just didn't get the dragonic tongue) he spoke anyway. "hey, um...isnt that another of your species? the nert furt? could you slow down maybe im kind of getting dizzy here." but she didn't slow down, merely yapped something unintelligible at him that of course he didn't get the slightest meaning of and pursued the dark shape. whatever it was it evidently did nor detect blueflame nor his beasts presence, so intent on its stalking the other who made no attempt to hide herself, as was part of the albino furys plan; one be the bait the other a pursuant. blueflame did occasionally catch just briefest glimpses of the dragon his mount knew as obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss, a recently deceased life as one of the god protectors followers under kahuakhaun./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"in his moment of distraction it was that moment that his mount by the name of nona saw something and abandoned the stealthy flight and shot forward, swooping her wings backward to gain great speed in little time. the viking hung onto nonas back spines for fear of flying off to the unwelcoming rocky ground too far below. blueflame caught the apparent surprised look as the night fury heard her rapid approach and craned its neck/head back over its hindquarters to see the charging form of nona barreling straight at him, before she slammed hard into his side. he grunted as she head butted him. it didn't take her long to recognize the markings on this night fury who recovered from te shock of this attack, hovering, ignoring the still distant hidden position of obuekhov somewhere out there. "ah, me oh my if we don't meet again this day Nona? hah. i admit you did well there but now that playtimes over shall we pick up where we left off?" blueflames mount uttered an unpleasant growl. "audria." the thin fury shook his head. "ooh nooooooo noo my little dragoness, no no." he admonished evilly. "no no. have you forgotten after these many encounters we happen to clash presences? im loaw edi essum, a fine fighting lying evil machine to help our leader finish off the likes of these blasted humans, like that scrawny one lying so desperately on your back spines. let me take care of that for youuuuuuuu." he darted toward them, but nona was adept to shift to the right, blueflame grimly hanging on with what strength was fading from clenching so long. "you want to fly this flight hm? do you reeeeeeallly think i wont drag you back by the hind leg to kahuakhaun, seeing you become one of our kind? the moon has given us all that we could need and more. why do you refuse to accept that? sensibility should have drilled that into you i thought. i shall have to teach it." before a move could be made a familiar purple glow telling of an alkaline flaming object impacted upon loaw essums great wings. he hissed in surprise to see evakyl arytiss grinning humorously, flying in to join nonas side, giving the human upon her an appreciative nod. "you thought by ignoring me you were thinking i don't exist and target my ally. wrong! now its two against one. shall we take him down? i long for the chance to disable this one, you and i have met up with this one too long. you're audria?" loaw essum was about to open his jaws wide and proclaim that that emwasnt/em his name but thought better of it, snapping his jaws shut again irritably. "let's get him, take him down once and for all."/span/p  
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p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"maybe this wasnt strongthe/strong best chose ever for running muzzle-long into the face of certain doom that's name was loaw okar kahuakhaun, who mere minutes ago wasnt his enemy but his guiding ruler and master, but it was stronga/strong plan and that's what Abydos would do. "you killed her, that elegant wonderful fury. you know why?" he roared blindly, maddeningly bent on ending loaw okar, swiping clumsily at him in attempts to cause some sort of bloody injury. "because even though you made her what she was i still had feelings for her!" he choked and his words fell in volume. "because...she was to be my" loaw ranak branarr expanded her ear frills to hear his next word "mate. she was to be my mate in the autumn and we would have had a lovely winter together." he flared up again, going after kahuakhaun deliriously dementedly. "but because of what emyou/em did i couldn't have a proper family in the end, no! no i was forced to become like you, weak and flawed and controled by someone else: something else! and that's what you are, silverwingthefury, youre controlled by someone else! all that time ago back in the nest, those of us free heard what you had become. im not talking about youre demented quest to assimilate all my kin to some twisted creature, im referring to what you were beforehand! you felt excluded all that time ago because your attitude was too unbearable for the nest to handle. and due to that you felt we treated you like an outcast. we didn't! i swear we didn't!" stirs among the crowd of watching night furys of whispering voices. "i know you can hear me in there! unlike my future mate i allowed myself to become your blunt tool to use as you saw fit, by giving up emmy/em life and emmy/em heart and most of all emmy/em entire soul to your ridiculous fruitless obsession, because i wanted her to remember me. all this time it was a waste, if i sacrificed myself to your insane ambitions than maybe nightflight would have been spared this atrocity." his gaze grew hot with hatred of a different kind than loaw okars, who watched Abydos without emotion in a break in the fighting. "but that didn't satisfy you did it? i see now as i have seen the broken body of nightflight here that it was that sight that freed me."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"he lunged forward suddenly, tackling kahuakhaun who hadn't expected the counterattack and they rolled together in a tangle of wings and claws. "you. killed. her. i cannot let that go unpunished you monster." Abydos landed a lucky shot onto loaw okars blue throat, ripping a good hunk of scales open to ooze vermillion steadily. nightflight had taxed a lot out of the night fury leader and he was beginning to tire, expanding most of his energy with fighting full on with her, Abydos was finding his marks a few lucky times. this latest injury to his throat drove him into a deeper rage again, lashing with all his appendages to end him just as well as he had silenced nightflight, whose body still lay sprawled in a spreading bloody pool. none of the watching dragons ventured near the mess. no further words were spoken, just ripping and tearing at eatchother, each striving to be the winner in this bout. kahuakhaun had the obvious fair advantage of hardened battle honed experience but in the newly freed Abydos he faced a foe with a vengeful spirit to the point of insanity to keep on fighting no matter how hard it took. branarr slit her eyes in anger as slowly but surely, though constant harassment to kahuakhauns sensitive muzzle, Abydos actually drove the maddened night fury back. the ground was already covered with a lot of vermillion from earlier but it quickly became so fierce a lot of night furys looked away or lifted wings quickly enough to avoid the truly gruesome spray of liquid. off to the side though, skitiiva branarr didn't flinch even as a spray of liquid from kahuakhaun doused her muzzle from a clever ram of Abydos paws hard up underneath his opponents jaws. no, skitiiva had sen too much in her marred, ragged-winged life as a follower of the god protector to care much. if loaw persvek was slain like the foolhardy upstart he was making himself by challenging a superior fighter, all would be well, but in case he somehow managed to defeat kahuakhaun, she would in turn slip in from behind and savage the foolish winged grub anyway. it didn't really matter for her one way or another./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"in another moment or two, skitiiva noted with a twinge of unease, loaw okar would actually emlose/em this battle, and this would only be the second time he had done so, accept this time he would be mauled to death at the claws of loaw persvek. "you ruined my best friend! i had feelings for her!" he howled in fury, slashing viciously and ripping a chunk of scales clear out of his wing near the bone that held the wing in place. loaw okar hissed with pain, shrinking from Abydos further advancement. "and you took her away from me! even while i was one of your pawns in a game of total eradication of all that is good i felt...different. like i had lost most of my mind but not all of it, that there was some part of me that would hold a special part of nightflight in my heart. now allow me to take away something of yours i should do now while you're strangely silent." he opened his jaws to ready a fireball at about the same time kahuakhaun did, but Abydos was faster, shooting it right into his foes yawning jaws. loaw okar reflexively swallowed his fireball, painfully spasming as it exploded within him, he cried out with pain and back away on abused, battered wings. "end him you big coward," called a few night furys bravely from the side, ranak branarr smirking at their futile encouragement. Abydos backed off to assess his own throbbing wounds loaw okar had inflicted heavily. he would never be the same proud fury on the outside ar least; much of his left side was bleeding. the break came when a night fury came blazing in, panicked. "i couldn't do it i just couldn't beat them. they were too powerful" babbled audria loaw edi essum at the feet of kahuakhaun, not taking note of the fact that he was oblivious to rationality and thinking. loaw essum was talking to the soul of a dead uncaring fury. "your reign as ended, you have lost." came the voice of none other than an albino fury with black markings around the ear plates and front paws, all the rest of the crowd of night furys and audria gazed skyward to see Nona and obekhov arytiss with a human on one of its backs flying into view. "now how did emthey/em find us here?" mused loaw branarr darkly to herself, throughly appalled. even Abydos tilted his bleeding muzzle skyward to see them fly close, and that's when it happened./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"loaw okar struck without waning with his front switch blade dagger claws. that was all it took. Abydos groaned from within his throat and slowly collapsed into a filthy pool of vermillion. he should have known that while he was distracted by the figures of two of his new partners, as he was now freed he could be on their side, (the two he had been shadowing for a while) that silverwingthefury had not even cared who stood in his way. he hadn't said a word, a quip, nothing to indicate a boast or other snide remark, not even a taunt. it finally dawned on the downed beast that this wasnt like the kahuakhaun he knew. no, the leader he knew even while being seduced by the stars influence, that loaw okar was a traitorous creature that boasted thoroughly how greatly important he was and that he was above all others, why emhe/em was the best 'nert furt' and foremost the first one, the very best one, to have been made leader. that behaviour hadn't deserted him when he sat on the cliff that fateful night long ago, just made the boasting more boastful, the playful sneers into murderous threats. it was still there, Abydos realised with a start, it was just buried beneath whatever had happened to him to make him become consumed by whatever deeper burning animal there lurked inside the cold calculated shell that was so normally controlled. as Abydos lay weakly in the sticky mess congealing on him, he found out this wasnt the blood spilt during his and his foes tussle. he looked and then he saw her, not a few meters away, lying so still: emdead./em the word echoed horribly in Abydos mind like a sentinel of despair. he ducked his head away from the upside down gutted form of that elegant slippery elusive shapely dragoness: once so full of life even if it was a murderous complex path, now no more: emdead. /emhe stared into his own fatigued bloodied muzzle in the vermillion pool. "nightflight, im...im so so sorry i...i failed. only if hadn't listened to those lies. if only i had been faster or...or...i dont know!" he blustered to himself. time stretched out for endless years to him, trapped in his awful weak little box. and then from nowhere, the voice spoke. "its...not over y-yet. im sorry...too...friend."/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"...TO BE CONTIUED.../span/p 


	12. All good things must end

unbelievable, incredible, inconceivable! it seemed like a voice from another word entirely from the one in wich the one in which the figures ear frill receptors had just audibly captured. it couldn't be and yet it was happening: in all this time of the rather gruesome battle that had led to his present position; sprawled-dragoned on the ground lying stomach-down in a bloody pool of another dragoness not too far away, it was she, the one who had from the very origins of this recently freed male dragon (known as a night fury) had remembered under the rule of the corrupted loaw okar kahuakhaun, who had uttered sound. "don't...dont give up. it's not over yet. we will prevail over h..him" the female voice groaned in obvious pain. with his recently freed mind now able to blot out the voice of the god protector above, the night fury once known as abydos loaw persevek wer whedab recalled the speaking dragonesess history: it seemed not so very long ago that she was the one creature, the one utter hope as it was sen that ay by the confused frighted dragons of the night left, being chased about, that nightflight would be their saviour. a mass of 'nert furts' suddenly appearing out of nowhere flanked by a big blue-stomach-colored fury named silverwing distraught the nest of mythical creatures, more so when individual dragons split off and started killing them. many that day had glimpsed a brown fury spit off from the pack and chase down a light-colored fury of unusual colors in their nest, a very pretty looking female (that was late found out to be the best fighter in claw combat there ever was). a slight exchange had commenced than and she had drawn the fury back with her to see the leader; silverwingthefury, the recently labeled loaw okar kahuakhaun. with obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss the final willing half-seduced fury to be talked into sacrificing herself to buy an albino dragon named Nona time to formulate a plan to free this mess loaw okar had created, nightflight was brought to the realm of kahuakhaun and forced to the side of shadow.

Abydos was brought out of his thoughts by a splash in the pool of nightflights blood behind him. the yellow-and-block shaded fury didn't need to look behind him to know who had made that sound. fulled with such boiling hatred and ignorant of the circle of watching seduced furys by the night sky above, loaw okar was simply focused on ending the next being that had made himself a target to be eliminated however possible the moment it had tackled him. in his mind ravaged state of pure feral mindset, he didn't speak or taunt, jeer or reflect on his losses and triumphs in his long life thus far: there was only the sole directive to kill. and that's what he would do to the creature that looked a lot like himself.

meanwhile off to the sidelines in the shifting bodies of corrupted night furys sat one in particular, disgusted with the current situation. sure, she had seen her leader loaw okar become something she hadn't seen before, and succumb to pressure. sure, she had observed him finally after so long in skitiiva loaw ranak branarrs opinion take down and kill his long nuisance at last, nightflight versel. sure, she could now see what a problem another dragon was becoming at the moment with another freed dragon she didn't recognize fighting tooth and claw to kill loaw okar to avenge nightflights death. what branarr could see now though was the unwelcome sight of two dragons that had long been a thorn in her leaders side about to topple the whole movement. smartly, these rebellious creatures hovering in the air while another babbled incoherently a string of apologies at the feet of an uncaring kahuakhaun, had averted their reptilian orbs from the twilight sky. oh yes, this dragon of tattered wings and a muzzle doused with blood from Abydos and her leader could certainly see where things where headed: blinded to his sole desire to obliterate his target, he neglected to see what was going on around him. more of the night furys by her side grew impatient to understand what was going on. branarr decided it ws more than time she took action!

she jumped onto a rising spire of rock jutting up in the mountainous region slightly outside the clustering ring of observing dragons that had gathered to watch nightflight pit her wits against kahuakhaun. a few turned their anvil heads to watch her progress. not liked by many, branarr knew she had a few of the others attention, she fully intended to exploit her possible rising brutal authority to overthrow loaw okar, she supported him whatever path he chose but she suspected he was becoming soft: letting that minuscule two-legged human attack it first with a petty log and sneer was unlike the leader she knew. maybe it was time to remove him, no hard feelings intended, sh just was prepared to let hm die at loaw persevek wer whedabs (abydis) claws to fulfill her own ends if the movement to"liberate" all dragons was to suseed. "listen up! we are on the verge of finally completing our mission the god protector has given us: it might not have been pretty or elegant like some have!" she glared metal fire down at the sky blue pelt of the dragoness that had personally given her so much trouble from the very moment she had been seduced by a gleeful loaw okar. "but versels death was in vain! what did she really hope by taking that white parasite in the sky alone with another to help her? she didn't! its time for a new era! as you can see your leader is too bogged down and blind to focus on anything else! he is not fit to lead our kind! what we need is one of us that isn't afraid to rend your opponent instantly! we don't have room for weakness!" she basked in the glow she had drawn for herself, noticing almost al the dragons below her ad at last turned to glance her way with what could be described as unthinking obedience. "as the new proclaimed leader of us all: i command you to attack!" and this what they did.

abydos was practically oblivious to the goings around him, so totally intent on ridding the world of kahuakhaun and him of abydos that nether bothered to deal with the attacking furies surging to destroy two dragons with a row legged flesh and blood on ones back. Soon there was alot of blood raining down as obuekhov and Nona faught like they had never battled before. As it wrapped up eventually it as to see both named night fuys on the ground battered and utterly exhausted. One wing torn off in the fight, not even noticing the pain, Ranak branarr held a struggling Nona by her neck that no longer even looked white and roared proudly at the top of her dragonic voice: at long last here was her sworn mortal annoying thorn in her former leaders side, here she was with the object of such scheming to convert when it would be easier to destroy the delusive feature instead. At last all her problems lay in her very claw. "Look at your thorn! Look at your so called free annoyance who has for so very long been the descussionn of our leader Loaw okar! He wanted this menace converted and look whee it got him! Just like her: dead!" She spat out the last word like venm as she cast her angular head in the direction of nightflights pool of vermillion " shes dead and gone and all a waste of time! She come here to defy us and Our leader wants to _talk? _ What kind of battle strategy of slaying your enemies is that? we have reached the new age starting with the imminent eradication of these two followed by you as well." She glared evilly with a hint of triumphant mockery, the look of one who has won and one knows it, at Abydos across the mire entangled with kahuakhaun. And that was the moment three things happened at that moment.

Loaw okar snapped free Of the feral induced state he has been in and took in everything at once, including the Dagon of ack and mottled yellow spots he currently stood over. At the same time Nona gave a defiant snap of her head that shook her neck hard in turn that threw branarrs ragged claw off her. Both of these diverted anyone's attention from fb real soectace that was surely a sight to make ones heart leap, and that heart was the human Viking boy blueflame. As he had been slashed at by kahuakuns baddies targeting him for some reason or another and had taken a rather uncomfortable fall from his mounts backside during a brawl in the sky between three massive brutes and her, blueflame saw alot of blood this day. It was awful to someone who secretly believed thee as far more to this world than slicing of heads with human axes and gutting animals for Thor pelts in his village back home. When his wary eyes settled on a form lying so still not too far away that was all too recognizable to his past encounters with the poor thing, he wept bitterly there with dragons skittering about airborne after obuekhov arytiss. An errant blast of alkaline purple fireball collided into the charred battlefield ground not too far away, battering him with its shock waves of displaced air. "Why why... It's not fair... I knew you...I knew you if only Ixxy had seen that you were a good creature. Now you're gone..."

there was an ominous echoing laugh behind blueflame resounding through the smoke from the fireballs. The air was becoming hazy and harder to see such was the scope of the intensifying battle against two free dragons and one locked in combat with loaw okar. "You thought you had been eluding me didn't you, poor human worm?" said the voice again evilly. "hehheheheheeee wellll you were wrong about that...DEAD wrong." blueflame cried out as something very heavy slammed into his back and he guessed who that something had been judging by the ugly snarling tone she used. The painful sensation of twin switchblade claws digging savagely deep into his backside made him cry out in pain as she smirked down at him. " all along it was because of you, oh yes, you that caused us much troublesome lives of the god protectors followers. Why must you go around making such a mess of things? look around you, worm, and see the all-powerful induction of all that we have become. And you had to come and talk to that...thing...to persuade her. I long have been meaning to run across that human that rides on the back of one if our resistant furys. Yes feel the pain I have endured today in great length; its nothing compared to what I feel personally at your interference in our conquest. Now that I am leader of our protector in the skies above I have no fears such as our former leader of Killing your human race to finally prove we will rule this known land without mercy. But why am I telling you this? You cannot even understand my tongue." Ranak branarr paused briefly in thought before raising her paw to deal the blow that would forever nullify the life of a young bright futured boy. "I think it's about time for you to die."

here it was: the end. "Wait! Wait! Hear me out! All right if you want it so badly to kill then hear me, you dragon. I am not a fighter nor a being that even thought once of haven your pelt for some ceremonial thing or even as a trophy on my wall it's not like tat at all. I'm sorry you feel killing me would help you along in whatever you seem to want to destroy me for but I am who I am...despite got hatred of me all you have to do is let go and I alone from human to nert furt can help you. let me help you...please..." He reached up behind him to reach the seething creature atop him inflicting blinding pain and saw the claw hesitate just a fraction. "You cannot convince me otherwise!" bellowed branarr Wildly, raining her claw upon blueflame. Seeing that his advice had no effect on the legendary creature he had so wanted to understand what it antes and the reasons for his apparent destruction, he went limp while siting for the end to come. "I understand. I get it now. you want to get rid of me because I am not like you. I get it." he waited for the end to to come...and waited. There was a startled roar followed by the sound of paws practically landing on top of him. And a deep throaty growl. Blueflame slowly cracked open a cautious eye to see a white mass heaving above him spotted by vast areas of red. Traveling his eyes from the thing above, he found four pillars of sky blue color on all sides of him." what would pillars of that tone be here? Stone is not blue." The pillars flinched suddenly, throbbed. moving? "and when do columns move as well? I must be going nuts." it was then in the chaos around the viking boy that he realized that the sky above was in fact not the heavens but the underside of someone's abdomen spotted by blood and the pillars none other than the legs of a reptile, not just any reptile no, night fury legs!

* * *

abydos detected a slight hesitancy in Loaw okars hold on him as he held him to the ground. Something seemed to come back into his opponents orbs...or leave them, he couldn't venture a guess which. But he took advantage of whatever was happening. "Why the delay? Don't you want to kill me? you can throw away the notion that I will ever glance into the sky again: I will not be a tool of wings and claws and murdeous bodily mass to fight for you. A year of battles in your tyrannical name, its over." Kahuakhaun took a moment to survey his surroundings as if to find out why he was here; Abydos took advantage of that, shoving the loosening grip of his enemy. Silverwingthefury uttered a startled grunt as he rolled over. "Ah my old friend, what pleasure of such company." He smiled coldly in turn. "You don't want to displease me. I haven an abounding tendancy to...bounce back. Where is versel? I thought it was her i was fighting." "dead" growled Abydos darkly, words thick with loathing. "and who do I have to blame for that? You, silverwing have done this. When you raided out nest in that mad deranged possessed desire to convert all of us did you think of the pride we had in ourselves for raising young? Not interfering with natural life outside our own? Now your possession and desire to look at the sky has twisted your mind! Even the flesh and bloods have been dragged into this, now i see with my clear mind that they certainly do not deserve this." he circled the other night fury wearily, sizing Kahuakhaun up for remaining weak points. "Oh no, i killed every last one. a good batch of rich diversity You all were but not good enough and only two escaped that day, loaw persvek. you obviously intend to mislead me; versel dead? Heh heh. I certainly think not. Not so long ago I let her escape me, she was a worthy match to someone such as myself, she is blind and needs only to see the light and walk the path to enlightenment. I will let your fight with me go, after all I was not myself recently. I do not wish to kill you, my...desire exists solely with versel." He turned his head away from Abydos to scan his surroundings again, sitting down on his haunches distractedly. Abydos splayed his wings out threateningly. "Don't turn your arrogant back on me!" he saw loaw Okar apparently taking no visible signs to hear him, so he eyed the creature more carefully.

in his will to kill the objeft of vengeance that had wiped out a creature he had wanted to be her mate, full if life and hope and breath, Abydos hadn't really taken the time to take note that Kahuakhaun was...very battle damaged. "You're very weak. You haven't the strength to continue for much longer." no change. Abydos extended his teeth warningly, padding closer. "You're flawed, silverwing, flawed and weak and frightened to face that which stands in your way. Am I not worth the trouble?" Loas Okar turned abruptly away in seeming unconcern. "You're scared, that's it. Big powerful all-seeing leader that he is, committing atrocities under the god protectors name, is afraid. Invincible to the eyes of many he appears as, he let my mate fly away, as even now he scuttles away on a beaten ego to fight another day." it would be his last try; if he didn't do something about his nemesis now, he might not get another chance to finish this once and for all. The other stopped midstride, and turned one eye to regard Abydos. "Say that again," came the voice with a dangerous undercurrent to it. "I said your scared. Your anxious that now that I have seen what I have seen, others may follow, and you will try your very hardest to deny the fact that you're scared when others just don't...fall right in line. You're a flying coward." Quick as lighting kahuakhaun flicked out his front paws to reveal the bloodied sharpened points within. He casually lifted one to his vermillion-soaked head, eying it disdainfully. "You'll regret saying such words, but it's too late for retreating. You'll beg for mercy, and when you lie dying beneath my superior legs, my muzzle will be the last thing you ever see!" The best fighter in the history of the sky's conversion sprang forward, Abydos ran to meet his enemy for the final battle.

* * *

"how dare you!" Thundered skitiiva loaw Ranak branarr in outrage, flapping her remaining ragged wing madly in order to not topple over onto her back, making her vulnerable underside an invitation to attack. One moment she has been about to snuff out the vikings light, the next something had sunk all it's claws into her back near the tail so viciously that she shot over the boy. Tuning around, it was to see an attack by a creature to lay her eyes on again. "This is not my day, taken on a beast for an oh so wonderful joyride is bad enough. I only want to understand their behaviors better." He tried inching out from his mysterious night furys embrace, while it barked and growled it's language at another nearby, the very one earlier that had very nearly killed him. Not there were two of them. Blueflame nearly accomplished crawling out when his curious eyes caught the pelt pattern of this particular dragon: beautiful scales the color of the midday skies sprinkled by the whitest dots of snow. "The battle. The tree I saw ixxy topple on you. The meeting with you again. I...know you." His eyes widened in recognition.

"You dare to lay paws on me?" The brown one snarled at the one standing over him. "I am nightflight, I dare a lot of things." She said simply, struggling to stand. She stood her ground Protectively over the Viking she once so long ago hate in another lifetime, now she would protect it. "You will not harm this human child." Noting the strong attempt at bravery and lack of strong posture clearly outlined by all the blood nightlight was covered in, skitiiva let out a short sharp contemptuous laugh. "HAH! And you can barely stand: your weak. Versel, you should be dead! I saw you die by the night of loaw okar." "I got better," came the sarcastic response. She felt movement, craning her neck down worriedly at the young Viking sneakily wedging itself from under her, attempting to escape. Nightflight didn't want to hurt the boy, she just needed to show him that she wanted to protect him. Placing weight tenderly on a fourth paw she stopped the wriggling away. "You know I had one other just as defiant as you that shielded this very same human worm from me: I will not be denied again! I am leader! I am! The sky has given me all the signs that I am to rule my followers! No one can stop me! Join with me or be destroyed!" She leaped for nightflights throat. She prepared herself for a hard ordeal; she could barely stand and fight for her and the Viking she had seen while lying in her pool of blood that was being menaced by a particular vicious dragon of kahuakhauns.

"I get it. you're trying to defend me. Thank you." It took a few moments for nightflights ear frills to determine where the sound was coming from. She gave a startled sound when blueflame rubbed he stomach gently, then Drew strength from that fact as he continued rubbing. "I believe you were sincerely confused in who I was. That's all. You're in very bad shape, creature." (He didn't know she had been presumed dead when kahuakhaun killed her but in fact she was indeed alive, but near death) the formerly evil dragoness winced at the jibe. About this time nightflight looked for the lunging branarr that SHOULD have been at her throat, but there was no sign. Both distracts with each others existence, nether blueflame Nor his beast caught the grim sight of branarr pitching over in immense pain. One glance from the dragoness quickly concluded That skitiiva would not rise again: death and darkness she alone had brought into the Land of the nigut furys, death and darkness would be thrust hard in turn upon her. Still pinning blueflame to the ground gently, nightflight exhaled raggedly, allowing her fatigue at earlier having summoned enough strength to rise in her terrible pain to tackle loaw branarr all she got, and and to remain standing over someone she considered worth saving. Even now her dragon blood dripped onto the Viking boy. With eyes that has been haunted by too much bloodshed and would undoubtedly see more before her own life slipped away, she looked directly into loaw ranak branarrs orbs, who's were filled with pure hatred. "It's over, skitiiva. Your cause, your mounting struggles to brainwash all who are not like you. It's all over. You have lost."

"don't call me that name!" Spat the night fury savagely. She tried rising again but fell onto her side with a pained hiss, followed by a violent cough that drew blood. "it has. no meaning for me. When i die you shall soon follow. that is all the satisfaction I shall need." nightflight allowed pity into her eyes at the sight. "You're right in one aspect: I am dying. But i perish knowing what I did...saved many more lives today than if I had done nothing." "my life doesn't matter. Your life doesn't matter. Only the cause. Agrees in the final outcome, versel. All it takes is one long glance into the stars to agree with us. It isn't so bad." nightflight said nothing. Ah had all the memory of what she had been. Who she was now resented all that transgression the moon and stars had inflicted. Ranak branarr grinned, spitting out more blood. "I'm _right_! Loaw Okar wanted you alive and his obsession has led to his downfall. Are you really that much to him?" "I was , I see why he let me escape. He wanted me...wanted me to know that I best him. I would have killed him too if I had been in my right mind back then. I felt...nieve back then. Time has taught me otherwise." she looked into her enemies eyes again. " I will not revert to the monster within me again. If...if you...only knew the revelation of what you had committed afterwords, you would not feel so happy. I came here at the twilight hour to finish the fight I began with silverwingthefury...now...it's over. I lost...silverwing won that fight, let him think I am dead. Skitiiva, if only you could somehow see the light." Blueflame saw how bad the brown fury was physically. "I have seen the light!" she shouted. "All of us have! It's you and your twisted band opposing the numbers of my followers that are blinded!" the blue destined averted her head. "Then in sorry old friend. Theres little more I can do."

another fit of coughing then," hahahhahahaaa. If...i Don't kill you...loaw okar certainly...shall" branarrs giggles of hysterical laughter soon turned into a horrible crazed glee. "When the...others...see that I am slain...they will come...after you." the broken mangled mess in front of nightflight smiled crookedly. "I will...die with...a smile upon...my jaws...the others...come for you..." The smile grew brower, vermillion leaching out onto the earth sickly, her voice a dark whisper. "All...of...them." An awful gargling laugh, a slight twitch of the remaining wing, and then all life left her. "She's dead! She's dead! She's dead! Our leader is dead!" Rang out someone's distant voice in dragonic, growing fainter. Nightflight sighed deeply in sorrow at the lifeless form of skitiiva loaw ranak branarr. " it's a great loss; such a waste," said a voice to the furys behind right wing. "If only we could have prevented it. I was one of those that captured and held you down so you could only gaze at the moon. I'm sorry." Nightflight nodded weakly in agreement, knowing who the Dagon behind her was. " I know, obuekhov...I forgive you all that time ago." Then feeling like she could no longer stand up on shaky legs, she collapsed into unconsciousness beside blueflame.

* * *

breath: big shuddering heart clenching breathing. What happened back there? A few opportunities to engage one of the rebel dragons (Nona), a survey of the battle in the skies, multiple glances in fascination at his overthrown leader Loaw okar kahuakhauns fighting style, and then this. THIS: a startling picture of none other than nightflight conversing with one that all heard as their leader. A good majority hated ranak branarr due to her disregard of manner and constant savage scheming to undermine her betters. Even as a follower converted by the god protector long before the legendary moment of nightflight versel, she was a piece of work. Now she was no longer alive. "She's dead! She's dead! She's dead!" shouted Audrea loaw edi essum in desperation. "Our leader is dead!" as he flew across the battlefield alerting others, the reaction rippled across the battlefield to masses of corrupt night furys including the surrounded Nona. Her current predicament Looked grim. Roughly 30 or so night furys encircled Nona, all armed, all threatening, all prepared for battle, and none too happy to simply let her just walk out of this unscathed should she ask to leave this little stalemate nicely. None weighed her odds with A thin smile full of dry humor. "You don't suppose I could simply ask you all to move aside?" No answer, only snarls indicating he curry other mob was about to spring at her. " ah, the silent treatment: like I missed that greatly. Your way it is then." nonas condition bordered on exhaustion. She had faced many a number of furys and won so this shouldn't be a problem. "All in a daily existence that comes with a free life." grumbled the albino fury, plowing into the amassed dragon mob.

* * *

"She's dead! She's dead! She's dead! Our leader is dead!" The fry reached the audio receptors of kahuakhaun, distracting Him for an instant. Bad idea. His enemy raked claws across his eyes. Abydos we practically fighting on pure force of will now to defeat this seemingly invincible beast. Maybe he was thinking this all wrong, maybe this twisted determined beasts weakness lay In a different strategy. He thoughts of the god protector projecting into silverwingthefurys mind took the matter entirely out of Abydoses paws. As loaw okar cursed his inattentiveness of the attack, he heard whispers in his head. "Why do you fail to live up to ecpectassssssions? I have all and sssstill my gifted one failsssssss. It might be time to reconsssiter the motive. You are now exsssspendble." the reaction on kahuakhaun was immediate.

"No! I did all you asked and more! I converted all of my brethren that I could find! I destroyed for you those that were weak or difficult! For this you made me leader, granted me a glorious essence of blood lust inside me! I have. It failed! I have not!" Abydos understood immediately what must be running through his confused dark mind: kahuakhaun was a master fighter even before the sky transfixed the body and mind. Early on in his life he believed others In his nest mistreated Him badly, branded him a traitor. Mistakenly mistakenly misreading their reasons as scornful abandonment, silverwing struck out on his own one night way from them to sit on the local cliff side, disdainfully musing at the night sky. Bullying and unfounded unhappiness directed toward his kin back home was quickly melded by the lure of the stars into a ruthless gnawing hatred to right a wrong he believed to be his path to enlightenment. Committing acts of 'justice' for a long time only to be tossed out must be very devastating to someone such as this dragon. Loaw okar leveled his gaze directly to Abydos, noting alarmingly that the monsters eyes looked dead and flat, As if he had accepted his fate. "So it no longer wants me, does it? So be it. Then I will take you down with me. You can be the ultimate testament to my failed legacy, Loaw persvek, once your remains lie permanently to rot into this land!" Abydos prepared himself, if he was to die here then he would fight knowing he was in the act of doing the right thing to defend what he believed in.

then out of nowhere an amazing thing happened: Loaw okar actually took a few steps back. "What are you doing?" He cried out in a voice that sounded Like desperation. "It's happening isn't it? What transpired with me is what you're about to experience. That's good that's good. Don't fight it, it happend with nightflight I heard, I went through it, you will too. Don't fight it, silverwingthefury, embrace it." it was as if invisible lightning struck kahuakhaun. He roared loudly in deafening decibels, reverberating across the battlefield so loudly many battles with Nona and obuekhov standing near nightflight prone form stopped fighting to see what the noise was. Rays of sunshine peeked through the last nights clouds, hinting at dawn. Gradually all skirmishes ceased between those still free and the god protectors followers, all looking at kahuakhaun...But he was kahuakhaun no longer. His roaring cut off, collapsing ill to his stomach, legs sprawled on ether side, coated with the familiar sight nightflight had been seen in. Coated in sweaty perspiration all over, wings drooping limply onto the ground awkwardly, the fury looked a scene of exhaustion.

'The others' gazed at this dragon they had been with for so long and were not sure what to think. Breathing heavily, the black and blue fury weakly raised his battle marred features, looking around as if he hadn't a clue to his whereabouts. "Where am I?" he razor without the cocky tone "I am silverwing? the last thing I..remember was the clifface...stars...beautiful stars." Abydos was about to relax his guard and answer the traumatized creature when he heard a rush of air beside him. Claws outstretched in a supreme determination to finally end this long crusade against converting more furys, the albino dragon known as Nona was about to finally stop this insurrection onfe and for all. This (kahuakhaun) creatures life had gone on far too long inciting evil onto the land. Now she would take That life.

* * *

Not too far away nightflight stirred. Looking around Wildly to regain bearings, her sharp eyes caught silverwingthefury flinching backwards away from nonas attack. Surely, from the power and speed she flew at him, would kill the dragon instantly. Nightflight gave a pained cry as the numerous injuries flared painfully including the ones inflicted by rank branarr upon her. She summoned one last mighty effort, calling upon the memories of those most dear to her and hoping they would forgive what she was about to do In the end, rising to her bloody Paws. She trusted the two-legged was in good hands of obuekhov arytiss, who called after the Dragoness to wait. Nightflighta sharp analytical mind recognized the signs of one who had been freed from the stars influence: kahuakhaun was showing these signs, which meant his name reverted to hid true being; silverwingthefury. as she ran, she contemplated what must have happened: silverwing presented himself In a poor manner, there's only so much a leader can do in his prime before slipping judgements. Nightflight surmised the god protector was finished with this dragon; it might seek another to lead. Striping away the night furys powers it granted, silverwing lost that darker part of himself. Nona was about to end his life mistakenly. Everything was going too fast. Nightflight changed tactics, changing angles and praying to intercept Nona instead. "No. Wait. Stop. You don't understand. He's no longer what you think he is. He's-" she didn't get to finish, Nona was faster and closer. Nightflight came too late. there was a triumphant cry, a thudding clunk, and it was over. The gouge in silverwings throat; difficult to look at. In his last few shuddering seconds of life, former loaw okar kahuakhaun gaze sadly into nightflights eyes. "I was...too late...to save myself...from...the darkness...but...k could save...another soul...from myself. i am...sorry I...tainted you. forgive...Me." nightflight bowed that lovely head. His task completed, silverwingthefury let go.

* * *

The battle was over. Those left alive saw their leaders death. Now leaderless, the masses took skyward in a hurry and abandoned the fight without a glance back. Someday they could return with a powerful ruler. But without nightflight or intellectual minds like branarr or silverwing, they lacked threatening appearances. For a long time to come. They would remain weakened indefinitely. Nona someday hoped to pursue them and free the rest from malign influence. Obuekhov vowed to fly a weak blueflame back south to his home and leave no trance how he got there. From there she remained open into her life to see where it took her. Nightflight passed away in Abydos paws; buried shortly after with dignity, honored for her sacrifices. With no hope of seeing his mate again, Abydos flew alone into the vastness of the land. His path remained unclear, that dragoness would severely stricken his heart for the rest of his life. Many tales told in blueflames village would travel to many other villages; tales told in blueflames viewpoint of a boy and his dragon, of a creature seemingly falling into darkness and rising to protect him in the peril of the moment. Tales told how he survived! Thier stories in time became influential among his village, and eventually garnered a grudging respect of Ixora Jackson, eventually marrying in the traditional Viking-ish way. with the disembarking of Nona, Abydos and obuekhov their separate ways, they told their share of the story as well to spread fame throughout the dragon world of nightflight. Past present or future, no one wood ever forget the legacy of nightflight Loaw shar versel: dragon with a change of heart.


End file.
